We Are The Creatures of The Croodaceous
by Torotyrannus15
Summary: A thrilling multi-storied adventure through the world of The Croods, as seen through the eyes of the Croodaceous creatures! Read about the struggles and hardships they face while trying to escape The End, and of the improbable friendships that follow! see the lives of the films' animal characters BEFORE the movie, and what happened AFTER certain scenes! Includes mild violence.
1. Chapter 1: The Hippocheetahs

**This is ToroTyrannus15, bringing you my very first Croods fanfic! But before we get started, I should mention beforehand that this story will NOT be including the title characters. I'm sorry, but this is my fanfiction, and it will only focus on the animals of the Croods universe. And FYI, every creature featured in this fic is from The Croods franchise, both the movie and concept art and early versions of the story in development. I'm not making anything up! **

**And pretty much every character is an OC, just so you know.**

**A/N: the events of this story take place before/during The End.**

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It was late morning in the desert, and as the sun shined on the sandy ground, a large but lanky creature dashed out from a large cave surrounded by cliffs, and basked in the morning light. The creature was an adolescent male Hippocheetah, a Croodacious mammal native to the desert with the slim body and spotted pelt of a cheetah with the bulky head of a hippopotamus, as well as a mane of hair that stuck straight up on its neck and shoulders. This male was bright yellow with dark stripes on his tail and a light copper mane, and was named Runtar. Runtar then dropped onto his back and started rolling around in the dust, glad to be out and about.

"Oh, yeah. It's a great morning for a dust bath!" Runtar said as he rolled in the dirt with pleasure. Not a minute later, Runtar's family came out of the cave; Yarr, his father and patriarch of the family, was the largest and had a black mane and gold fur with brown stripes on his legs. Mawlla, his mother, was smaller with a strawberry blonde man and amber-colored fur. There was also Torrik, his safron-colored older brother, Doorah and Koorah, his cream-colored younger twin sisters who were always fooling around, and lastly, Runtar's grandfather, whom he and his siblings called Gramps. Gramps was Yarr's father, and he had a mostly gray pelt, was blind in one eye with part of his tail missing, and hardly ever spoke.

As Runtar got up and shook some of the dust off, Doorah and Koorah started running around and yelping happily. They seemed to be glad to see the sun too.

"Morning, son." Yarr said to Runtar with a yawn.

"Morning, Dad." Runtar replied. "You sleep well?"

"Nope. All night those pesky Jackrobats kept nippin' at me. Sometimes I really think we should cover up our cave at night."

"I can sure agree with that." Mawlla jumped in as she was giving the twins a tongue bath. "I heard that a swarm of Jackrobats once caused an entire herd of Zebra Ostriches to die of blood loss!"

"That's impossible!" Torrik interrupted. "Jackrobats never attack in numbers THAT big."

"Oh yeah? Tell that to the Hippocheetah who was huntin' that same herd of Zebra Ostriches that night!" It was Gramps who had said this, and everyone stared at him afterwards.

"What're y'all lookin' at?"

"Nothing, Dad." Yarr began. "It's just that that's the first thing you've said in three weeks!" Gramps just snorted and didn't say anything else. Yarr then saw that the sun was just above the highest cliff, meaning it was time to hunt.

"Alright, everone! The sun's high, and you all know what that means!" The others all looked up at the sun and got excited, especially Runtar. Without hesitating, Yarr charged through the canyon with Runtar, Torrik, Mawlla, the twins, and Gramps racing behind.

The seven Hippocheetahs soon found themselves out in the open desert and dashed behind a cluster of large rocks. Yarr spied out across the desert with his binoculor vision and spied a female Ramu eating from a shrub by her nest. Runtar saw that there was an egg in the nest, as well as the pack of Liyotes that were eyeing said egg from not far off.

"Alright everyone, here's how we'll get that egg:" Yarr then explained the strategy they would use to snatch the egg and make off with it without any trouble. When he was finished, the family all scurried off all around the target: the nest.

Runtar slinked close towards the nest behind a cluster of large stones to hide himself. The Ramu was still preoccupied with eating, so she had no idea that a spotted theif was planning to make off with her brood. As Runtar was approaching the nest, his brother was hiding across from him, edging towards the Ramu, silent as a mouse. Suddenly, Torrick revealed himself and growled, startling the Ramu, who squawked at him and bared her sturdy horns. Torrick snarled and refused to back away, distracting the bird so that Runtar could go for the nest, which he did. But before Runtar could so much as leap onto the nest, one of the Liyotes zipped past him and grabbed the egg in its arms and leaped off the nest and ran. Runtar roared and ran after it at almost 70 miles per hour, but his cry had alerted the Ramu, who turned to see her egg gone. Enraged, the Ramu screeched and took off after the two mammals with Torrik following.

The Liyote could see Runtar rapidly catching up, so he tossed the egg to the left where it was caught by another Liyote who ran off with it. Runtar tried to stop, but slipped on the sand and careened into a tree. The Ramu, however, easily changed direction and went after the second Liyote, ingnoring Runtar who by this time was trying to get up.

"C'mon, little brother! Get up!" Torrik yelled as he heaved his younger brother to his feet and raced off, with Runtar following soon after. By now, the Liyotes had all congregated together into a pack and were running back to their lair with their bounty. It seemed that they were going to get away with the egg, but not if Yarr had a say in it. One of the Liyotes howled a warning, causing the others to look over and see a very large, angry-looking Hippocheetah charging right towards them. The reptomammals barked in fear just before they were crashed into. Yarr stepped on the egg-carrying Liyote's tail, prompting it to yelp and lose its grip on the egg, which Gramps snapped up and ran off with.

"Great catch, Dad!" Yarr yelled. Some of the Liyotes went after Gramps, but he stayed steadily ahead of them. Gramps may have been old, but he was still fast. Suddenly, he was rammed over by the Ramu! The egg rolled away, but was quickly picked up by Doorah who scurried away alongside Toorah. The Ramu squawked and started to chase them, but tripped and fell when Gramps caught her foot in his jaws. The twins were still carrying the egg with Liyotes behind them, but Mawlla rushed in and took the egg in her mouth while the twins ran off towards the cave obediantly. Runtar ran up towards his mother with the Ramu gaining on him.

"Mom! Over here!" He called. Mawlla threw the egg to her son who caught it and manuvered away from the angry momma bird. The Liyotes saw this and followed them. Runtar dashed by a tree and swerved 90 degrees, and was soon flanked by Torrik.

"Gimme the egg!" Torrik yelled over the noise.

"No way! I'm bringing this home!" Runtar spat back with difficulty due to the large egg in his mouth.

"Just hand it to me!"

"Get your own!"

"Just let me bring it back!"

"Quit being such a Jackrobat!" The brothers continued to bicker, paying no attention to what lay ahead. Torrik was about to retort, when the both of them tripped over something, dropping the egg. Unfortunatly, they happened to trip over a sleeping Bear Owl's tail, thus waking it up. Torrik quickly got up, grabbed the egg and ran, leaving Runtar behind. The Ramu and Liyotes suddenly saw the angered Bear Owl and ran off, preffering to live another day. Runtar saw them flee in terror.

"What's got them so spooked?" His question was answered immediatly when the Bear Owl screeched.

"Woah!" Runtar charged away with the predator hot on his tail, and joined up with the rest of his family.

"Alright, who woke up the Bear Owl?!" Yarr yelled angrily.

"Yeah, I guess that's on me." Runtar confessed. His father just groaned as the Bear Owl roared again.

"Alright everyone, full speed ahead!" At Yarr's command, the entire family pumped their legs even faster and sped away from the huge carnivore.

"Daddy? Can we eat now?" Toorah asked sweetly.

"Can you PLEASE just wait until we get home?"

"Sowwy, Daddy."

"Yarr, you really shouldn't yell at them like that!" Mawlla piped up.

"Can you really blame me, Mawlla? There's a Bear Owl behind us!" Yarr shouted. The Hippocheetahs were approaching the cliffs, with the Bear Owl still after them. Yarr looked ahead, saw a large rock, and got an idea.

"Split up!" Yarr yelled and the family all charged in different directions, confusing the Bear Owl, who looked ahead at just as it was too late. Unable to turn in time, the Bear Owl slammed into the boulder at over 50 miles per hour, giving it quite the headache. By now the Hippocheetahs had come back together and were laughing at the Bear Owl's expense.

"Heh heh. Well, c'mon everybody! Soup's on!" Yarr said as he led the family back to their cave. There, they cracked open the egg and feasted on the tasty yolk, and also helped themselves to a Liyote that Gramps had caught and killed during the chase. There wasn't much meat on it, but no-one complained. After all the food was gone, Yarr noticed that the sun was beginning to go down.

"Did it really take us all day just to get breakfast?" He inquired.

"I guess so." Mawlla replied.

"Well, we've had more difficulty getting food before." Runtar stated. "Remember that time the twins stole those Vulture Gorilla eggs?"

"Heh Heh! I remember that!" Gramps cut in. "We ended up having to avoid a Giralephant stampede!"

"Or back before Runtar was born, when Torrik tried to attack a baby Sandsnake!" Yarr added with a hearty chuckle.

"Real funny, Dad." Torrik said sarcastically. "Remember WHEN Runtar was born?" This immediatly stopped all the laughing. Runtar was confused. Torrik was grinning smugly. Yarr was glaring at his son. A few moments of silence went by, and then Mawlla said:

"Well, it's been a long day, and the sun's starting to go down. We should probably get some sleep."

"Good idea, Mom." Torrik said, still grinning at his brother. The rest of the family went inside the cave to sleep, but Runtar decided to stay out for the night.

"You guys stay in the cave. I'll sleep on the cliff." He told them.

"Alright, just be careful, son!" Yarr reminded him. "And watch out for cavemen!"

"C'mon, Yarr. You know the cavemen never come out at night." Mawlla said as she laid down with the twins.

"Hey! I'm just trying to keep my son safe. Is that a problem?"

Mawlla yawned and said:

"It is if you warn them about unreal dangers."

By now the sun was very low in the sky, but Runtar was still leaping about. Using his superior agility, he gracefully leaped from rock to ledge to canyon wall on his way up to the highest cliff. When he got there, he laid down on his stomach and saw an amazing view of the desert, illuminated by the light of the moon and stars. It was utterly breathtaking. Runtar was about to fall asleep, when a flicker of light caught his eye. He looked over to his right and saw an eerie- yet intoxicating- orange glow not far away. He slowly stood up and crawled towards it, but it suddenly started moving away. Not wanting to lose it, Runtar sped after the light down the escarpment. Soon, the light stopped moving and Runtar skidded to a halt by an outcropping. He slowly peeked out at the light, and saw that it was coming from a torch with what looked like a miniature sun on it. Runtar crept closer and sniffed. He smelled burning wood, but he also picked up the distinctive smell of human. However, this wasn't the reeking scent of cavemen like his family had dealt with once or twice, this human smelled a lot cleaner and scrawny. Suddenly, one of the ashes from the fire blew up towards Runtar. He was mesmerized by the little glowing thing, and began chasing it around. Then, he heard voices. He silently crept back up the hill and peered over the edge, and immediately skidded back out of sight. Humans. Both the scrawny-smelling human and the savage Tiger-girl whom he had faced off against several times. Runtar stayed absolutely still, for if he was seen, he would likely have been killed. As he laid there in fear, he cold hear the two humans talking about something called "The End Dun Dun Daaaah!". Runtar had no idea of what this could possibly mean, but from the male's description it sounded bad. Runtar stayed still until he was sure the humans were gone, and then turned to head back to the cave. He had a lot on his mind right now. What was going to happen to their desert home? Would they survive? Would anything survive? As Runtar neared his home, he saw the sun starting to peek above the horizon. He would have to talk to his family about this.

Runtar got back to the cave just as his family was awaking. Yarr was the first to come out.

"Morning, son." He said with a yawn. "How'd you sleep?"

"Not well, but there's something I need to tell all of you ASAP." Yarr looked at his son a bit awkwardly for a moment, but then went to wake the others. Once they were all awake and alert, Runtar began to explain.

"So you see, last night while I was up on the cliff, I saw this weird, glowing light and followed it. When I caught up to it, I could smell cavemen."

"Cavemen?!" Mawlla yelped. "But they never come out at night?" Runtar continued.

"Well, this time they did. It was that girl wearing the tiger skin, whom I've come across once or twice, and some scrawny, less dirty-smelling male, and I could also smell sloth. Anyway, they had this thing that they called 'fire' with them. It was such a beutiful glow, like a tiny sun. But back to the point. I overheard the male talking about something he calls "The End". I don't know what it means, but from his description, I think I can safely say that it's going to be really bad." The others thought over this for a moment, and then Yarr said;

"Alright, son. We believe you. Just one question: When is this, "The End" supposedly suppose to begin?" However, to everyone's shock, the ground below them began to rumble, and a crack suddenly snaked through the ground right beneath Runtar's feet.

"I guess, RIGHT NOW!" Rocks and chunks of canyon wall were shaken loose and rained down around the Hippocheetahs, and the crack in the ground widened, and the shaking grew stronger.

"We have to get out of here!" Yarr shouted as the cave was shaken apart. The family quickly ran towards the path to the open desert, but were stopped when a huge boulder crashed to the ground in front of them, blocking their only way of escape. The twins squealed in terror and hid beneath their mother.

"Yarr! What do we do?!" Mawlla screamed. Runtar then looked back and saw a pathway up the cliff. It would be risky, but it was a chance they had to take.

"Everyone, follow me!" Runtar ran towards the cliff and began to climb, but the others lingered. Runtar looked back and saw them hesitating.

"C'mon! It's the only way out! Do you want to survive, or be crushed by an earthquake?!"

"You heard him! Move it!" Yarr commanded, and everyone listened and began climbing the cliff face behind Runtar. They all made it to the top and ran for their lives just as the cliffs collapsed and destroyed their home. Runtar looked out across the desert, and saw it quite literally falling into the earth. He roared to his family to run faster. Suddenly, the clifftop split in two right in front of them! They all leaped across the ledge as the wall behind crumbled to the ground, but suddenly, the rock that Toorah was standing on fell into the chasm, taking her with it! Toorah screamed as she fell and landed on a crumbling rock pillar. Without thinking, Runtar leaped over the edge and grabbed his little sister by the scruff of her neck and jumped back onto the cliff face and scaled it to the top, still gripping Toorah, terrified but unharmed. The whole family then rushed across the plateau, the cracking and crumbling rock just behind them. Suddenly, the cliff ahead of them crashed down like a stack of cards, but the Hippocheetahs had too much momentum, and before they could stop were sent careening over the side of the cliff! The canyon then completely collapsed to the ground, clouding the whole area in dust and ash.

Runtar groaned as he struggled to push himself up. He was covered in dust and there was debris all around him, and no sign of his family.

"Hello?" He called out. "Dad? Mom? Doorah? Toorah? Everyone okay?" He was then met with a groan from behind. He turned around and saw his parents and siblings emerging from the rubble, also covered in dust.

"Mom! Dad!" At his call, Mawlla ran over to him.

"Thank goodness you're alright!" She said as she licked him behind the ears. Torrik then noticed something.

"Wait. Where's Gramps?" Everyone looked around, trying to make out the form of the aged Hippocheetah through the dust.

"Gramps? Gramps, are you there?" Runtar called out.

"Dad? Dad, where are you? Dad?" Yarr yelled into the dust cloud, but was left unanswered. Everyone looked at eachother, sharing looks of realization and sadness. However, Doorah and Toorah didn't seem to understand.

"Mommy? Where's Grampa?" Doorah asked innocently. Mawlla just didn't have the heart to tell her daughter the truth, so Torrik tried to.

"*sigh*. Doorah, I'm afraid that Gramps is-" But he was suddenly interrupted when they heard the sound of rocks being shoved aside.

"Ha ha! I'm not dead yet and I ain't gonna die today! Take that, rockslide!" A familiar voice shouted in triumph. The family was shocked to see Gramps jump down to them, completely unharmed.

"What'cha all lookin' at?"

"Nothing. Just please don't scare us like that again, Dad." Yarr said. As the dust cleared, Runtar noticed something past the cliff edge. He went up to it, and stared out in wonder.

"You really need to see this!" He called back. Confused, Runtar's family followed him over the rocks, and were met with the sight of vast, lush jungle with a huge 2-peaked mountain rising in the distance. They all had but one thing to say:

"Woah."

"We should totally go there!" Runtar excitedly announced.

"Wait just a minute!" Yarr interrupted. "We can't just rush into an unknown area! It's a jungle out there, literally! We're Hippocheetahs! We belong in the desert!"

"Face it, Dad." Torrik cut in. "The desert's gone. This is what lies ahead. And even though I hate to say it, Runtar's usually right about these kinds of things." After some thought, and seeing his family's eager faces, Yarr eventually gave in.

"Alright, fine. We'll go there." The others cheered when he said this. "But you all have to be careful. We're entering unknown terrian, so just follow me and watch your tails." Eager to begin this new adventure, Runtar, Torrik, Mawlla, the twins, and Gramps filed behind Yarr as they descended down a narrow pathway towards the jungle with the twins riding on their mother's back.

When they found themselves beneath the canopy and surrounded by trees and underbrush, Runtar boldly stated:

"I have a feeling this is going to be fun!"

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**How's that for the first chapter? And no, the Hippocheetahs will not be returning in the next chapter, but they WILL come up again soon! As for the next chap, we will see how the other animals of the desert handled the mass earthquake, as well as a few heartwarming scenes. Stay tuned, readers!**


	2. Chapter 2: The Desert Crumbles

**I present chapter 2. In this part, the other creatures of the Croodaceous desert must do everything they can to escape the earthquake and survive. And no, the Hippocheetahs will not be featured again for several more chapters. Anyway, enjoy.**

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It was early morning and the sun was just rising over the desert. Many of the animals were still asleep. The mother Ramu, whose name was Egina, and whose egg had been stolen by the Croods yesterday, had laid a new egg overnight and was slumbering peacefully on top of it. Elsewhere, nearby the cliffs, the Liyote pack were dozing calmly, and one had just woken up. The Liyote was terra-cotta in color with brown hair, yellow stripes and a pure cobalt-blue tail, and was aptly named Bluetail. Bluetail was smaller than the others of his pack, but he was a useful member nonetheless. Bluetail wasn't the fastest or strongest Liyote, but, according to all his friends, he was most likely the smartest. Bluetail designed all the strategies his pack used to get their food, and the others always praised his ideas, even when those pesky cavemen stole their plundered food from them. Bluetail was often helped in his strategizing by his friend Nippers, an albino Liyote of similar intellect. Knowing that the others would not awake for another 2 hours or so, Bluetail decided to get some breakfast for himself and scurried away.

Not far away, a huge, male Bear Owl yawned as he made his way back to his cave. His name was Neroc, and being mainly nocturnal, he slept through most of the day. Yesterday, however, he had been rudely woken up when those cavemen stepped on his tail. He had tried to attack them, but mostly out of payback for disturbing his nap.

He yawned again. Soon, he found his way back to his cave and settled in to sleep the day away. However, sleep would not come to him. He didn't know why, but Neroc felt that something was deeply wrong. He tried to push the thought from his mind, but it wouldn't cease to bug him.

Underneath a small desert tree, Nabby and Brabby, the Trip Gerbils, were just emerging from the sand pit where they slept at night. Brabby was slightly darker than his brother and had a slightly less cheery demeanor, but the two still got along just fine. They had to! I mean, they WERE permanently conjoined at the tail. Their species used this siamese twin attribute to trip other animals, making them drop their food so the gerbils could steal it, hence their name. Not only did it get them food, but it also gave them a good laugh when they needed it, which Brabby did on several occasions. As they dusted the sand off their bodies, Nabby said:

"Hey, Brabby? Does something feel different to you around here today?" His brother didn't seem to follow.

"Not really. What exactly feels so "different" to you?"

"I'm not sure. I'm pretty sure it's instinct talking, but I think we should leave here. Soon."

"What? Why would we leave? We have everything we need here! Plenty of food with an easy way of getting it, only a few predators to worry about, and an admitedly small but rationable amount of water. What's to leave for?"

"I don't know, but it just...feels that something isn't right here." Unfortunately, Brabby still did not understand.

"Well, when you get over this dillusion of yours, feel free to talk to me." Brabby then began to crawl away. He couldn't get very far, though, as he was attached to Nabby.

After a last look around to be sure nothing was wrong, Nabby followed his brother to find something to eat, but still felt uneasy.

Back at Egina's nest, the female Ramu in question was just waking up. She fluttered her eyes open and squawked a loud yawn as she stretched her wings and neck. She then hopped off her nest and stretched her legs. She yawned again and turned to her new egg with loving eyes.

"Morning, sweetheart. Sleep well?" The egg said nothing, of course. Egina chuckled to herself.

"I'm sure you did. Now, stay here. Momma's gonna get some breakfast for herself, and then I'll be right back. Alright, sweety?" With that, she nuzzled her egg and went off to find some tasty vegetation or perhaps a random lizard. You may ask, why was Egina raising her egg? In large, flightless birds, it was normally the father who hatched the eggs and raised the chicks, but Egina's mate had been killed by Neroc only minutes after she laid her first egg, so she compassionately took it upon herself to raise the chick. Unfortunately, her first egg had been stolen by the cavemen a day ago, so she laid a new one the night before and immediately began incubating it. She was prepared to defend this one at all costs, and she told herself that if any of those cavemen showed their beakless faces around her nest again, she would knock them so hard they wouldn't be able to throw rocks for a month.

Egina was enjoying a tasty shrub when she looked up and saw another animal approaching. It was hard to see in the dim light, but as the animal came closer, she saw that it was her friend, Erith the Emel. His kind were hybrids of emus and camels. Erith called out as he came closer.

"Egina!"

"Erith?" The Ramu called back. "What're you ding here? I thought your herd went North!" Erith had reached her now and slowed to a stop.

"We did, but after we crossed the mountains, we saw that an enormous crevasse had swallowed up the entire prairie! There was nothing left!" Egina was shocked to hear this. An earthquake of that magnitude that unheard of! Erith continued.

"I left the herd and came back to warn you. Where's your mate with your egg?" This made Egina a little upset.

"He's dead. A Bear Owl killed him just after I laid the egg. And the egg was later stolen by cavemen." Erith was shocked by this.

"I...I'm sorry, Egina." He said.

"It's not so bad. I laid a new egg last night and I'm raising it myself!"

"Wow. That's very noble of you. But As I said: You must get out of here as soon as you can. By instinct I can tell that something dreadful is going to happen. The world may never be the same." Egina hesitated for a moment.

"Thank you for warning me, Erith, and I know you've always been right in the past, but I just laid my new egg and I rather not do any traveling right now." Erith groaned and shook his head.

"This isn't a matter of choice, Egina. I can't force you to leave, but I give you this advice: if you do not leave here soon, you will not survive." With that, Erith took off running through the early morning light and was gone from sight within moments.

Egina sighed. She had no idea of what to do now. If this supposed disaster actually did occur, where would she go? And how would she take her egg with her? Thoughts like these whirred through her head as she hopped back onto her nest and sat down on her egg.

The sun was rising higher in the sky now, and Bluetail had climbed up a small ridge to get a better look at his surroundings. His stomach growled. He would have to eat soon, for no Liyote could spend even a few hours running around on an empty stomach. He stood on his hind legs and surveyed the vast desert, the place where he had grown up. Suddenly, his sensitive nose picked up the smell of rancid meat. He swiveled around and caught site of a large, bloated Giralephant carcass not far away. Spotting food, Bluetail quickly scurried down the ridge and ran up to the carcass, but saw that a few other diners had beat him to it. A trio of large, brutish-looking Vulture Gorillas led by a huge male named Grunt. The other two were called Darg and Rozz. Darg was copper brown and Rozz had a large bite mark on his right arm, but Grunt was at least a third larger than either of them. The trio were well-known bullies throughout the desert and were known to forcibly steal carrion from other scavengers, like the Liyotes. Nobody really liked them, but as if they cared. They looked up and glared at Bluetail as he approched. Intimidated but still hungry, Bluetail cautiously crept closer.

"What do you want, Scrawny?" Grunt inquired in a deep, threatening voice. Bluetail cleared his throat before saying:

"Good morning to you Grunt, Darg, Rozz." They glared at him. "I'm just looking for some breakfast. May I get a little bite from that mouth-watering carcass you've got there?"

Grunt glanced back at his cronies for a moment, and then responded:

"Fine. But don't touch the organs. Those are MINE." Grunt may have been a bully, but he wasn't a total jerk.

"Thank you!" Bluetail said before ripping into some savory muscle tissue. He could see Darg and Rozz glaring at him grumpily, but Grunt had walked a way off and was looking at the sunrise. Once Bluetail was finished eating, he thanked Grunt for his generosity.

"Thanks for sharing, Grunt! I'll be on my way now."

"Good. Now get outta here before I bite your tail off." With that, the Liyote scrambled away, allowing the Gorilla Vultures to return to their meal. Bluetail looked back at them as he left. Grunt acted tough, but at heart he was an animal the same as all of them. Bluetail then headed back in the direction of his pack. Grunt watched him go.

Neroc suddenly woke up to a loud rumbling noise. He hastily dashed out of his cave and looked around. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, except for the rumble beneath his feet!

"Calm down, Neroc." He told himself. "It's probably a Giralephant stampede or something. Nothing to worry about." Unfortunatly, such was not the case, and this was proven when a Giralephant charged past him, trumpeting in terror.

"RUUUN!" It yelled before speeding away. Neroc had no idea of what to make of this, until the ground shook with a mighty force that threw the Bear Owl right off his feet.

Neroc looked up and his feathery ears shot up in shock when he saw the desert literally splitting apart! A huge crack snaked along the ground right towards him, widening as more sand and rock collapsed into it. Neroc shrieked in terror and ran faster than he ever had before.

Nabby and Brabby were snacking on some cactus fruit when the felt the tremors.

"Um, Nabby? Please tell me that's a Giralephant." Brabby said with a trembling voice. Nabby could see the huge crack in the earth coming towards them, nearing every second.

"We've gotta run for it!" Nabby screamed before taking off with Brabby flailing behind, escaping just before they were struck by the earthquake.

Back at her nest, Egina was pondering what Erith had said. Should she go? Suddenly, her thoughts were interrupted when a huge flock of Jackrobats flew by, all of them flapping and shrieking in terror. One of them spotted Egina and said:

"What're you still doing here?! RUN!" And fled. Egina had no idea what to make of this, until a huge tremor shook the Ramu right off her nest. She looked up and saw the crack splitting the desert in two! Another tremor shook, and Egina was about to run for her life, but then she remembered her egg. She looked back to see the crack widening and more ground falling into it, and knew that she would never make it back to the egg in time. She would have to leave her egg behind. With tears in her eyes, she ran and didn't looked back.

Grunt, Darg, and Rozz had left the carcass and were heading back to their individual nests, when they felt the tremors.

"What was that?" Darg inquired, scared out of his hide. Grunt turned back to see the ground opening up, and a side crack was snaking right towards them. His goons squawked in terror.

"Run, you idiots!" Grunt ordered with fear in his voice. The trio ran like there was no tomorrow, and it didn't seem like there WAS going to be a tomorrow. Suddenly, they were thrown off their feet when the ground burst upwards in a massive shockwave, creating an enormous crevasse in the earth that everything nearby fell into.

"Move, you idiots! MOVE!" Grunt bellowed, shoving the other two away from falling boulders.

"Grunt! What're we gonna do?!" Rozz screeched.

"We're gonna get the fuzz outta here!" Grunt then scrambled up the nearby cliffs with his ape-like agility and was followed by his goons. Meanwhile, Nabby and Brabby had climbed to the top of the canyon and were scurrying like madmen, but suddenly, a crack opened up and the two fell in! However, before they met their doom, their shared tail was grabbed by a muscular, feathered arm. The gerbils were pulled up to see that their savior was, indeed, Grunt! Grunt put them down and ran off with his followers, saying:

"Watch your tail out there, you guys!"

"Was that a "joined at the tail" joke?" Brabby suspected.

"Does it matter, Brabby?!" Nabby yelled at his brother. "Let's get our tail outta here already!" With that they zipped away.

Bluetail scrambled away from the earthquake as fast as he could, which was pretty fast, but not fast enough. As he ran, he had to dodge many falling rocks, archways, and cracks made by the tremors. He was about to keep running when he suddenly spotted an abandoned Ramu nest with an egg still in it, about to slide into a chasm! Seeing the fragile life about to be destroyed sparked something inside Bluetail, and, without thinking, he charged towards the nest, snatched the egg, and ran for his life just before the nest fell into the earth. The Liyote continued to run like heck as the world collapsed around him, clutching the egg close to his chest. Soon, unfortunately, he came to a huge sheer drop leading down to lush forest. Seeing that the desert was history, Bluetail gripped the egg tight and leaped over the edge and fell into the unfamiliar jungle.

Egina was running along the side of the cliffs, able to see a full view of the desert being swallowed up by the mass earthquake. She dearly hoped that Erith had escaped in time. Suddenly, up ahead, she saw a Liyote standing atop a rock pillar that was about to topple, with its pack lingering by the edge of a nearby cliff, unwilling to leave it. Though Egina despised Liyotes, she was not heartless. She sprinted foreward and leaped over the Liyote, grabbing it in her beak and clearing the gap just before the reptomammal fell in. When she landed on the other side, the Liyote and its pack stared up at her. Suddenly, another tremor shook the cliff.

"C'mon! We have to get out of here!" Egina screeched before running, with the Liyote pack following right behind her. They soon reached a gorge and ran through it, but Egina skidded to a stop when they reached the other side. Below them was the leafy canopy of a jungle with no way down. Egina and the Liyotes looked back to see the gorge collapsing, and the Liyotes clinged to her in fear. Realizing that they had no choice, Egina closed her eyes and leaped off the edge and fell into the forest with the Liyotes still on her. She fell through the canopy and slid down a sloping red tree trunk, landing on a soft patch of ferns. The Liyotes scuttled off her and she stood up. The Liyotes were looking at her with grins on their faces. The one Egina had saved then came up.

"Hello. My name is Tarmak, leader of this pack, and I thank you for saving my life."

"You're welcome." Egina replied. "I'm Egina, and do you have any idea where we are?"

"Afraid not." Tarmak said, looking around. "But I think we should stay together and explore this lush new forest, since we have lost two of our members already, Nippers and Bluetail. Anyone oppose?" He turned to his pack and they all shook their heads no.

"Wait a minute, wait a minute!" Egina shouted. "I know you're glad I saved you and all, but I think I'll be fine on my own."

"You may not know, Egina, but when you save a Liyote's life, he is indebted to you for as long as it takes to repay it." Egina was surprised at Tarmak's statement. She did NOT know that._ Now I guess I'll have_ _these guys on my tail until THEY save MY life. Great._ She thought to herself.

"Okay, you and your pack can follow me until you save me from something, but then I want you gone."

"As you wish!" Tarmak said. His pack whooped and howled in excitment, and then they all started the journey through the jungle, with Egina and Tarmak leading the way.

Neroc was running from falling boulders through a narrow canyon as the tremors were beginning to subside. He stopped when he saw a huge section of rock break away and fall, obliterating a large cave and showering the area in dust. Neroc clamped his paws over his eyes and forced his body to the ground before he was blown away. When he opened his eyes again, the world was shrouded in dust and debris. When the dust cleared, Neroc ducked as he was suddenly dive-bombed by a huge, flying turtle with 4 feathery wings. He stared in shock and wonder as it flew away. He had never seen a creature like that before.

"What on Earth was THAT?" He asked to nobody in particular. He then climbed over a rock and saw something that didn't make him happy. It was the cavemen whom he resented quite a bit! They looked back and him, and he snarled and charged. The big one pulled a rock in his path, which Neroc easily threw away, but then they were gone!

Neroc spotted them and charged again, but then they jumped off the cliff! Where they crazy? Angered that he failed to kill them again, Neroc paced around the cliff edge, looking down at the jungle below. Suddenly, he heard something behind him. He stood up and rotated his head 180 degrees and saw a trio of Vulture Gorillas behind him, but not just any Vulture Gorillas. It was Grunt, Darg, and Rozz. Neroc snarled. He knew them fairly well. They waited by whenever he made a kill, often pestering him until he left and they got a meal. He had a real grudge against them. The mammalbirds saw him too and growled, beating their chests like apes. Neroc roared and charged the trio, stopping in front of them to stare them down. They did not run, however.

"Well! Look who it is, boys! It's our old pal, Neroc." Grunt said with mockery in his voice.

"What do you lunkheads want?" Neroc growled.

"Same as you, Bear Owl. We wanna get outta here."

"And what makes you think I won't kill you first?"

"The fact that there's three of us, and only one of you." Neroc snarled angrily. Grunt started again:

"Look, big guy; we don't want any trouble. We're just tryin' to get down to that jungle over there. Now, I suggest we all stop fighting for a while until we get down there and out of that jungle. So, what do you say? Truce?" Grunt extended his hand towards Neroc. The Bear Owl thought over this for a few minutes, but eventually said:

"Alright. Truce." And shook paws with the Vulture Gorilla.

"Good. Now I suggest we find a way down there before night falls."

Bluetail landed on a huge leaf that bent down from his weight and gently dropped him onto a giant flower which drooped and set him on the ground. When Bluetail was sure he was on solid ground, he opened his eyes and stood up, still holding the Ramu's egg. He looked down at it. He had saved the egg from death for a reason he couldn't understand at the time, but he had done it anyway. He had no plans on eating this egg, and, looking at the fragile sphere of life, he decided that he would hatch the egg and raise the chick like his own pup. He held the egg up to his face and his eyes widened with total adoration. He had never been a father to another species before, and now this was his chance.

"I'll call you Eggy." He christened the egg. With his decision done, he tucked "Eggy" under his arm and scampered off into the unfamiliar terrain.

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**And so ends Chapter 2! I hope you all liked this one, especially how Bluetail saves "Eggy". Again, I don't really own anything. **

**A/N: Nabby, Brabby, and Nippers actually are those 3 animals' names. Just look it up.**


	3. Chapter 3: Not-So Cold-Blooded Reptile

**Prepare for chapter 3! I'll say that this is probably the most adorable chapter I've written so far, and you'll soon find out why. Remember that Sand Snake that ate one of the Crood's neighboring families? Well, this here is that serpent's story ****_AFTER_**** that happened. **

**A/N: the beginning of this chapter takes place about a year before the movie does. **

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Out in the hot desert, a humongous, green, black, and yellow spiky snake with a huge horn on its snout slithered across the sand. This scaly beast was an adult male Sand Snake named Sorith. Sorith and his kind were the apex predators of the desert, and only the feircest Bear Owls dared challenge them. The desert was an ideal climate for the Sand Snakes. Non-stop heat, a steady supply of prey, and the right amount of water and territory for any giant reptile. Sorith's kind was not venomous, but they did pack a nasty bite with their meter-long fangs.

Sorith was busy looking for a meal, and he hadn't eaten in over two months(keep in mind that reptiles- especially snakes- can go for weeks without eating). All of a sudden, he picked up a scent. He flicked his forked tongue out of his mouth and smelled a group of warm, tasty mammals. He grinned that serpentine grin all snakes had before slithering off speedily towards the succulent smell.

Sorith arrived at the edge of a cliff in record time. He peeked over the edge and caught site of a family of cavemen emerging from their cave. He hissed and licked his scaly lips hungrily. The squishy primates would make a satisfying snack. But he couldn't attack now, for they would see him. The element of surprise is valuable to a hunter, as is patience. Sorith was very patient indeed. He would wait, and then he would strike! Sorith silently followed the cavemen as they made their way through the canyon and out into the desert, where they were joined by some other cavemen. Sorith hissed. More cavemen meant it would be harder for him to attack, since, though they were pink and fleshy, humans could be quite tough, especially in numbers. So what? Sorith coiled his massive body in a relaxed position and patiently watched as the cavemen scrambled around, fighting various other animals over a large, meaty-looking Emel(not Erith). It was actually quite entertaining. In the end, the cavemen killed the Emel by stabbing it with a pointy stick, and then raced back into the canyon before Neroc could get them. Sorith followed them back to their caves and coiled up again to wait. Eventually, the sun began to set, and the cavemen went back into their caves and sealed the entrences. Sorith honestly didn't know why the humans were scared of the dark, and he for one loved being out at night. The only problem was that with no sun, a reptile like Sorith couldn't move around very fast. Seeing as the cavemen had already fallen asleep in their caves, Sorith decided to wait through the night.

"Eh. I'll get 'em tomorrow morning when the sun's out." With that he slithered down and coiled himself around a large sticking-out rock ledge and fell asleep.

The sun rose bright the next morning. Sorith awoke slowly and a loud yawn that sounded more like a hiss escaped his gaping jaws. He blinked his slitted eyes and looked down at the cave containing his breakfast below, and flicked out his tongue again. It wasn't so much for a reason at the moment, it was just a reflex all serpents possessed.

Sorith waited for a few minutes, letting the rising sun warm his scales and blood so he would have enough energy to attack. When he felt warm enough, he slowly slithered down the canyon wall and approached the sealed-up cave. Inside, he could hear the humans just waking up. Hastily, Sorith opened his expansive jaws and gripped the boulder blocking the entrance in his blade-like teeth. The humans must have heard the rock move, because they suddenly went quiet. They knew he was out there, and he would make his presence known in a moment. With a cold-blooded hiss, Sorith heaved the rock up and threw it far away. He then slowly stuck his huge head through the entrance and hissed menacingly. Needless to say, the humans were all terrified. With a blood-curdling hiss, Sorith attacked!

The humans screamed and tried to get away, but they were all caught in the Sand Snake's ravenous maw. Once he was sure he got them all, he pulled his head out of the cave and swallowed them all whole. He hissed with satisfation, but then felt himself being pelted by rocks. He turned and hissed, and saw that the other cavemen were throwing rocks at him and screaming like animals. Sorith angrily hissed and slithered away.

Several hours later, Sorith was out in another part of the canyon slinking along, thinking about what he should do for the rest of the day. Suddenly, he felt a lump form in his stomach and up to his throat. He began hacking and coughing, not having the slightest idea of what was wrong with him.

"_*hack!*_ W-what the fuzz is _*hork!*_ wrong with _*cough!*_ m-me? _*wretch!*_" Suddenly, Sorith belched and his tongue shot out...with two humans hanging onto it! But not just any humans, human babies!

Sorith got a good look of what was clinging to his tongue, and was quite surprised. There was a little girl who couldn't have been a day over 2, and an 14-month old infant boy. The girl was a brunette with a large ponytail with hair covering one side of her face, and was dressed in a brown animal skin, and the boy had black hair and wore only a diaper made of tan animal skin. The two children were crying like heck and were lightly covered in gastric acid and saliva, but were otherwise unharmed.

As the cavebabies continued to bawl their eyes out, Sorith stared at them wide-eyed and silent. After another few seconds, Sorith screamed:

"OH MY GOD! I ATE BABIES!" The two babies dropped to the ground when the snake recoiled in horror. Sorith was **HORRIFIED** that he had eaten- and very nearly digested- two cave-toddlers.

"I can't believe this! I actually ate babies!" Sorith may have been a cold-blooded reptile, but he certainly wasn't a heartless monster! "I'm a monster! I can't believe that I didn't take a good look at them before I attacked! I shoud've known better than to just assume they were all mature! Those other families had babies! Why shouldn't that one?! I'll never be able to live with myself now!" Sorith began hitting his head against a rock. "I'm a cruel, unanimal monster! I can't believe I did that! I'm such a careless idiot! I should have checked! I SHOULD HAVE CHECKED IF THEY HAD BABIES! _**HOW AM I GOING TO SLEEP AT NIGHT KNOWING WHAT I'VE DONE?!" **_

While Sorith was madly berating himself whilst bashing his head into a rock, the two babies countinued to wail and cry on the ground in fear and pain. All of a sudden, as he was about to bash his head again, Sorith heard them cry. He froze. Hearing the heart-wrenching scream of a child snapped him back into reality. Sorith stopped scolding himself and looked over at the crying cave-kids. Instantly, a powerful wave of remorse washed over the giant snake. He quickly slithered towards the weeping children and encircled them with his body and slowly approached his head towards them. He could see the fresh tears flow freely from their eyes, and began to get sad-eyed himself. Hastily, Sorith tried to comfort them.

"Shh, it's alright, it's alright. It's okay! I won't hurt you." The two children started to calm down a little bit, but were still clearly frightened. Sorith carefully wrapped them in his coils and stared deeply into their faces.

"That's it! That's it! Stop crying, it's alright. Everything's going to be okay." The two had stopped crying completely now, but tears still steaked down their faces.

"Don't be afriad. Don't cry. I'm not going to hurt you." Sorith succesfully calmed them down, and then used the tip of his tail to brush away the tears from their cheeks. He looked at them. They were still clearly upset, but at least he had gotten them to stop crying. The two siblings looked up at the serpent with wide eyes, seeming to be afraid. _Why shouldn't they be? _Sorith thought to himself._ I ate their entire family for breakfast! Of course they're afraid of me._

But the girl's next action completely took Sorith by surprise. While Sorith had his eyes looking away, she reached up and wrapped her little arms around his horn, and she was soon followed by her brother. Sorith's eyes widened in total shock when he felt the warm touch of the babies on his scaly hide and looked at them closely. The two of them had lost their family, but they seemed to sense that Sorith was hurting too, and actually seemed to be **FORGIVING** him for eating their family! Sorith was completely taken off guard by this, and when the children pulled away, they smiled at him! His cold-blooded heart warmed by this gesture, Sorith smiled back, tears of happiness forming in his own eyes. He rose his head and looked down at the baby cavepeople in total adoration. He looked deep into the girl's sparkling blue eyes and the boy's strong reddish-brown eyes, and they looked into his blazing yellow eyes. At that moment, Sorith knew what he had- and greatly wanted- to do: it was because of Sorith's actions that these two beautiful cave babies had nobody left, so it only made sense that Sorith take it upon himself to care for them, feed them, protect them, and raise them until they grew up into strong, independant cavepeople. But until that day arrived, Sorith would treat them as any mammal parent would a child, with tender love and care.

"It looks like I'm your new family." Sorith said to the children, and they hugged his scaly coils and giggled adorably. Just then, Sorith heard a light growl. He realized that the sound was coming from the babies' stomachs. They were hungry. Sorith gently dropped them on the ground and thought. How was he going to feed them? The two children had begun to whimper as their empty stomachs growled louder, but Sorith calmed them down.

"Don't worry! Don't get upset! I'll get you some food!" But, what do they eat? Sorith thought to himself. To the extent of his knowledge, he knew that baby mammals drank milk until they were at least a year or so old. Unfortunatly, he could not supply milk because he wasn't a female, nor was he even a mammal! How could a reptile, like him, possiby get milk to feed baby mammals, like the cave-babies? Then, an idea struck him!

"Hey, babies! Wanna go huntin'?" After a moment, they both yelped with joy, thrilled for some action if it meant they would get food. "Alright! Let's go!" The babies then climbed onto Sorith's head and hung onto his horn as he rapidly slithered out into the desert.

When they stopped, Sorith and the babies had arrived at a rocky outcropping with a large herd of strange creatures in view. The creatures had stocky, bovine-like builds and were covered with red feathers and brown fur, had long, curved horns, and parrot-like beaks on their faces. The creatures were Parrot Buffalo, and this herd had migrated from the South here to have their calves, for there were too many predators in their homeland. The Parrot Buffalo were nearly as large as an adult Bear Owl, but they would still run from a Sand Snake of Sorith's size. Sorith put the babies down behind a rock where they would stay hidden.

"Alright, both of you stay here and don't come out until I say so. Got it?" The babies nodded, seeming to understand. "Okay, good." Sorith them went into hunting mode, and slithered along the shadowy edge of the rocks to conceal himself from the herd. Suddenly, the herd's leader, a huge male with a broken left horn, picked up Sorith's scent. Sorith stayed absolutely still as the huge male approached, but suddenly, his luck changed when the girl stood up on the rocks and began making several obnoxious noises and sticking out her tongue, causing the leader to abandon Sorith and investigate. _Wow. Smart baby!_ Sorith thought. With the leader distracted, Sorith seized his chance. He shot out of his hiding place and hissed menacingly, scaring the living daylights out of the herd and causing them to panic and stampede. Sorith chased after them, his superior speed giving him a huge advantage. The babies giggled with excitment as they watched.

Sorith quickly caught up with herd and went after the nearest female. He lunghed at the bovine and wrapped it in his coils, preventing it from escaping. He then called out to the babies, and they raced over on their little hands and legs. The cow mooed in fear as the hungry cave-children approached. Sorith rotated the Parrot Buffalo onto its back so that its udders were exposed. Excited, the babies jumped onto the cow and began suckling from it. Sorith had to admit, the way they did it was kind of cute! They must've been even hungrier than Sorith thought, because after they sucked the cow dry, they begged for more.

"How can you two still be hungry?" He was a bit surprised, but he went out to get another cow anyway. It was harder the second time, since the herd was pretty much expecting him, but he managed to nab another female and drag it back to the kids, whose stomachs were rumbling even louder now. Once the second cow was sucked dry, the children were finally satisfied. Sorith sighed with releif and released the cow which stampeded away. The two babies yawned tiredly and fell onto Sorith's back, completely tuckered out. Sorith smiled at them before slithering back to the canyons.

When he returned to his home in the canyonlands, the sun had begun to sink below the clifftops. The cave-babies were already half asleep when Sorith gentily set them down on a soft patch of sand and coiled himself around them. Sorith was quite tired himself, but then he had a thought: _They need names._ This was true. Sorith needed something to call the children, something they could go by for their whole lives. Sorith looked down at the two of them, and they yawned cutely before smiling up at him. Sorith then noticed that the girl had two large buck-teeth, and the boy was gnawing on a bone he had found nearby, clearly teething.

Sorith then thought of two perfect names for them both. He looked closely at them and announced to them their knew names.

"I'll name you Toothy," He said to the boy. "And I'll name you Buck." This he told the girl. The kids smiled and laughed at their new names, and hugged Sorith tightly on the snout. As Sorith pulled away, Buck and Toothy fell into a deep, satisfying sleep.

Sorith smiled down at them. Buck & Toothy. Sister and brother. Cave-children. **His** cave-children.

Buck & Toothy.

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**Isn't that sweet? :) I hope you all liked this chapter, because the next one continues from here! And yes, I also think the beginning was a little gruesome, but that's how I wrote it and it's not changing! I don't own any of the characters in this chapter, only their names are mine.**

**And yes, I know that Buck is a weird name for a girl, but that's what her name is and I for one like it! Chapter 5 will be about a certain elephant-giraffe hybrid!**

**A/N: This will be the last fic I'm publishing for a while, because I'm going to focus more on updating my other ones.**

**A/N 2: Also, the Parrot Buffalo is featured in the Croods art. And yes, I know it doesn't look anything like my depiction of it, but can't we agree that my version clearly looks better?**

**LOL you thought I was going to make Sorith hiss his S's, didn't you?**


	4. Chapter 4: 1 Year Later

**We return to Sorith the Sand Snake and his adopted cave-children with chapter 4! Now, before we get started, I will point out that I based Buck and Toothy's appearances on how they were shown in the actual movie in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it scene just before Sorith eats them. **

**Anyway, this chapter is set a short while later, and then we are shown how the trio escapes the beginning of The End. **

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**One Year Later...**

Sorith was asleep, snoring lightly. The sun was barely up and the rest of the desert was still sound asleep. That is, except for a certain pair of adopted children. Sorith slowly opened one eye when he thought he heard giggling, but took no heed and closed his eye again. However, both his eyes shot open when he felt something strong and sharp clamp onto his tail.

"YOWCH!" He yelped as he shot up. He turned to look at his tail, only to see a certain 1 1/2-year old caveboy hanging from it. Sorith chuckled.

"Well good morning, Toothy." Toothy giggled and dropped to the ground. "I knew I chose that name well."

Ever since Sorith had adopted him and Buck, Toothy's teeth had been growing in at an accelerated rate. His front chompers were now almost as big as his sister's, but not quite. Being a reptile, Sorith had had all of his adult teeth when he hatched, so he didn't know much about mammal teeth. Toothy was wearing a blue animal skin that Sorith had gotten him a few months ago, and let's just say that skinning the creature it had come from wasn't easy for someone with no limbs. Sorith then noticed that Buck was nowhere to be found.

"Toothy, where's your sister?" All of a sudden, his question was answered when he felt something drop onto his head. He looked up to see a giggling Buck hanging onto his nose horn and smiled. Sorith always loved to see the children happy, which they always where when he was around. Buck was always energetic, and could move remarkibly fast when she wanted to. She could run almost as fast as Sorith could slither! This came in handy a lot when they were chasing potential meals.

Speaking of which, The trio suddenly heard a loud growl. It was their stomachs. "Alright then!" Sorith said. "Let's get ourselves some breakfast!" At the mention of food, the kids whooped in excitement, hopped onto Sorith's back, and they sped away.

After a while of speedily crossing the vast desert, the group peeked out from behind a butte and saw a huge herd of Zebra Ostriches at their nesting ground. Some of the creatures were sitting on their clutches of gray eggs while others were feeding or standing guard. After a moment of planning, Buck and Toothy carefully sneaked into the herd, while Sorith stealthily slithered off ahead of them and behind a concealing boulder. The plan was set to begin.

Buck and her brother shuffled quietly around the herd's skinny legs until they found an individual sitting on a nest. They waited until it got off the nest to feed, and then Buck went up to the nest and eyed the clutch of gray eggs inside. She quickly grabbed two of them in her arms and jumped out of the nest just before another Zebra Ostrich spotted her. She gave a thumbs up to Toothy as she ran past him, signalling him to cause the distraction. Toothy winked and snapped his jaws onto an individual's leg, making it screech out in pain and effectivly spook the entire herd. Toothy joined back up with his sister as the herd charged into a stampede, and the two of them jumped onto an individual's back and rode it with the others.

Back to Sorith, he saw the panicked herd rapidly approaching his hiding place, just as planned. As they neered, He sprung out from behind the rock and shrieked at the herd, terrifying them into swerving away from him. Sorith got down and slithered after them, catching up to them on the side of the herd and looking threatening. He then saw Buck and Toothy with the eggs, and nodded in approval. The two kids then hopped to the ground and started running back to the canyons. Sorith then singled out two members of the herd and snatched them in his jaws, killing them almost immediately with his razor-sharp teeth. His objective completed, Sorith slithered off in the direction the kids had gone.

Buck and Toothy were hurrying back to the canyons, each holding an egg, when they suddenly bumped into something. They looked up to see the mother Zebra Ostrich whose eggs they had stolen, and she was _mad_. She screeched at the cave-babies and made a grab for her eggs, but suddenly, both eggs were snatched away by an incredibly fast Liyote. The Liyote stuck its long blue tongue at them before sprinting away. The Zebra Ostrich squawked angrily and chased after the theif, but was passed by a cranky and determined Buck. Running on all fours, Buck easily caught up to the Liyote and tried to bite its feet. Suddenly, the Liyote fell flat on its face, tripped by Nabby and Brabby's tail. The gerbils then proceeded to grab one of the eggs and run off with it to eat, but Buck wasn't going to allow that. She grabbed the other egg in her mouth and raced after the rodents.

The Liyote stood up and dusted himself off, and was about to chase after Buck and the gerbils, when something with sharp teeth clamped onto his tail, making him yelp and run off. Turns out it was Toothy. The little guy knew he could never catch up with his sister on his own legs, so he tried a little inginuity and decided to use someone else's. The Liyote quickly caught up to Buck and, needless to say, she was a little surprised to see her little brother going as fast as her with a mouthful of Liyote tail. Toothy waved to her, adding a hilarious visual gag.

Buck and Toothy then heard a loud squawk behind them, and looked back to see the mother Zebra Ostrich gaining on them. Buck then had an idea. The two kids suddenly jumped out of the mother's path, and she sped ahead and stepped on Nabby & Brabby's tail, making them drop the egg. The mother snatched the egg in her beak and turned to head back to her nest, but she was suddenly flanked by Buck and Toothy, with the latter riding on his sister's back! Toothy jumped onto the Zebra Ostrich's flank and snapped his jaws onto her tail, causing her to screech in pain and lose her grip on the egg, which was then caught by a small flock of Jackrobats who flew off in the other direction with Buck and Toothy's quarry.

The Zebra Ostrich then screeched and ran after the winged rabbits with Toothy still on its back, and Buck swiftly followed.

By this time, Sorith had caught up to the kids and saw them chasing the other animals around for the eggs, and slithered in after them. An exciting race across the desert followed, with Buck up front chasing after the Jackrobats. Sorith zoomed foreward ahead of all the other creatures until he was neck and neck with Buck. Toothy then jumped off the Zebra Ostrich and onto Sorith's back and climbed onto his head. Sorith saw the second egg in the paws of the Jackrobats, and got an idea. He sped up and went right beneath the swarm and shot up into the air, dispersing them and making them drop the egg, which was caught by Toothy. When they landed on the ground, Sorith hissed and bared his fangs at the other creatures, effectivly scaring them off. Buck then jumped onto Sorith and they raced back to their home in the canyons.

"Now that was fun!" Sorith announced once they got back to the canyon. He dropped the meaty carcasses on the ground as Buck and Toothy started to break open the eggs. Sorith watched in amusment as Buck succeeded in cracking the eggs open using her huge teeth. As the siblings enjoyed the tasty yolks, Sorith took one of the Zebra Ostriches and ate it whole. The other one was for Buck and Toothy, but they couldn't chew solid food very well yet, so they needed their meat mashed. Again, something not-so easily done for a creature with no arms or legs, but Sorith was willing to do whatever it took to keep his children fed. Sorith wrapped the limp body in his coils and squeezed until it was mushed, and then he carefully removed the bones before he looked it over to make sure it was soft enough, but it still seemed too chunky. To solve that, he slithered up the cliff and shoved a large boulder over the edge, which landed on the carcass and squished it into mush even more.

Sorith then slithered back down, removed the red-spattered rock, and called the kids over.

"Buck! Toothy! Come and eat!" Buck and Toothy had finished the egg yolks and were still hungry, so they joyfully scurried over to the splotch of mashed animal tissues. Sorith watched them as they voraciously scarfed down the meat, and also had a little for himself.

When they were finished eating, Buck and Toothy climbed onto Sorith's back as he slithered up the canyon wall and laid down on the cliffside, choosing to spend the rest of the day sunbathing. Buck, Toothy and Sorith soon fell asleep in the warm afternoon sun.

Sorith was awakened hours later by a strange noise. He lifted his head up and heard it again. It sounded like a long, loud honking. Sorith couldn't think of any animal that made a noise like that, but he suddenly cought sight of a bright glimmer in the distance. He rose up to get a better look, and managed to make out the orange glow of a fire several cliffs off. This confused Sorith, for there was little to burn up on the cliffs, and other than lightning, which there was none of presently, Sorith knew of nothing that could start a fire.

He was about to slither over to investigate, but he stopped when he heard Buck start to whimper in her sleep. By an instinctual reflex, Sorith immediatly wrapped the two kids in his coils and held them close, which thankfully calmed Buck down. It had seemed that she had been having a nightmare, but now it was over, thanks to the comfort of her snake parent.

Buck had been dreaming that she, her brother, and Sorith were just hanging around in early daylight, but then something went horribly wrong. The ground began to shake, and a crack opened up the earth and took their entire home with it! They had tried to escape, but they too were swallowed by the earthquake. However, Sorith had reacted and quickly comforted her, thus ending her dream and letting her sleep in peace again. Sorith, however, was still a bit uneasy. What had caused that small fire? He could not go look now and leave the kids by themselves, lest Buck's dream came back. What had she been dreaming of that made her so scared, anyway? Sorith would have to think about this in the morning, for right now he was much too tired.

The next morning, Sorith awoke to an eerie silence covering the desert. He sensed something was not right. For some reason, his instinct was telling him to leave here as soon as he could. The sun was just rising when Buck and Toothy woke up and yawned cutely. The two siblings quickly noticed that their serpentine guardian was not acting like himself, and was staring off into the distance. The two of them looked out where Sorith was looking, but saw nothing. It was then that they noticed the quiet. Normally in the mornings, the air was filled with the echoing bellows of creatures waking up, but now it was completely silent. Sorith then blinked and snapped out of his trance and looked down at the kids, who were giving him awkward glares.

"Sorry about that, kids. Something just doesn't seem right here." Buck was suddenly reminded of her dream. The eerie silence had appeared then, too, and was followed by the earth shaking.

Speak of the Devil. Not seconds later, a huge tremor ripped through the canyons, causing Sorith and the kids to fall into a gorge. They were jolted from the shock of it all, but were unharmed. The earth shook again, and a crack tore through the ground beneath them. Buck gasped. Her nightmare was coming true!

Sorith looked up to see huge boulder and chunks of rock falling towards them, and hastily grabbed Buck and Toothy and set them atop his head before slithering away faster than he ever had before. Buck and Toothy cried out in terror as their home crumbled around them, but Sorith would not give up. He tore through the canyon faster than the fastest Hippocheetah, dead set on getting his family out of there alive.

Another tremor suddenly shook the canyons, causing Toothy to be shaken off of Sorith and fall to the ground!

_**"Toothy!"**_ Sorith screamed upon seeing him fall. All of a sudden, Buck leaped onto the ground and ran back to her little brother and grabbed him by his animal skin in her mouth and dashed back to Sorith in less than a minute. With them back together, Sorith took off again, rocketing through the collapsing canyon with every fiber of his being. Sorith soon reached the end of the line when he came out of the canyon to a narrow ledge overlooking vast jungle. Frightened for their lives, Buck and Toothy shut their eyes tight and gripped Sorith's horn. Sorith took one look back and immediately threw his serpentine body over the edge and coiled around himself in midair before falling through the trees.

Sorith broke through the thick forest canopy and hit the ground hard. He uncoiled himself and took a look around at the new surroundings. Buck and Toothy looked up and clambored down Sorith's scaly body and felt the new terrain beneath their feet. Here, the ground was soft and mossy, as opposed to the hard, gritty sand of the desert. Sorith didn't know what to make of the jungle, but the kids seemed to like it. Sorith watched as the two of them bagan to run and play in the bushes and ferns, but they stopped when they suddenly heard movement from a purple shrub. Sorith slithered over, ready to defend Buck and Toothy should something come out. A moment later, a large, fuzzy creature came out of the bush. The creature was a Kiwi Pig, a creature with the round body of a pig with the feathers and beak of a kiwi bird. It snuffled through the underbrush before looking up and seeing the cave children and gigantic, horned serpent. The Kiwi Pig had not the slightest idea of what to make of these creatures, for it had never seen their kind before. Sorith then hissed frighteningly, making the Kiwi Pig squeal in fear and scurry away.

With the new creature gone, Sorith looked around. At the moment, he could see no danger, so he called back to the kids and they climbed onto his back, and they set off to explore the new land.

Along the way, Sorith, Buck, and Toothy saw many new and interseting things. They found out first hand what the green jungle variants of Mosquitos tasted like- juicy, and that Bear Pears did not like to be bothered. The trio soon came across a large tree, which bore bulbous, red-skinned fruit. Buck reached out and grabbed one, and took a huge bite out of it. It tasted delicious! She hungrily ate the rest of the fruit and licked the juice off her hands, and then picked two more; another for her, and one for Toothy. Toothy was a bit wary when Buck handed him the fruit, but seeing as his sister was enjoying them so much, he decided to go for it. As the two siblings enjoyed their fruit, Sorith pondered sampling some himself. It didn't seem like any harm.

"I guess I'll try some for myself, too. What harm could it be?" He grabbed several red fruits with his tongue and swallowed them down. "Hmm! Not bad!" However, he did not notice that after he ate the fruits, something began to change on him.

Buck and Toothy were about to reach for more fruit when they looked down at Sorith, and their eyes went wide with surprise. Sorith looked up at them and had no idea what they were staring at, until he took a good look at himself.

**"HOLY FUZZ!"** Sorith shouted upon seeing his current state of being. His scales were turning red! It was some kind of side-effect of the fruits! However, since Buck and Toothy's skin stayed the same color, it must have only affected reptiles. Sorith had no idea of what to make of this coloration change, and the kids had climbed down onto a rock to look at him better. The red actually looked pretty cool! But, as good as he looked, Sorith still wanted to return to his old, green self. He looked around, and spotted a similar-looking tree, only this one bore green fruit. Without a second thought, Sorith slithered to the second tree and ate a fruit. However, instead of turning him back to his normal coloration, the fruit made Sorith's tongue turn green! He sighed. This was not his day.

"Well, I guess I'll just have to wait until this stuff gets out of my system." With that, he picked up the kids and slithered away, but Buck had managed to snatch a few more fruits before they left and shared them with Toothy.

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**So, Sorith and the kids are in the jungle now! And regarding Sorith's color change, I may or may not decide to make it permanent. Whatever works best. Anyway, I hope you like this chapter and the one before, and next chap will focus on the Giralephant from the beginning of the movie. Also, that Kiwi Pig is an OC and will reappear soon. I know, I'm introducing a new OC just about every chapter, but that's how I roll, so butt out!**

**A/N: I still don't own anything here really, except for the color-changing-fruit tree. That's of my own making. **


	5. Chapter 5: A Giralephant's Origin

**And here's chapter #5! Remember that lone Giralephant that appeared in the beginning of the movie, well, this is his story. Learn the mighty beast's life story from the moment he was born 'til he escapes from the desert as it is destroyed by The End. Also learn why he's alone. **

**I still own little to nothing in this fanfiction. All credit goes to Dreamworks.**

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In a silent jungle to North, the light of the crescent moon brightened the forest floor. Beneath the canopy of the trees, a female Giralephant was laying on a soft bed of moss and leaves while her mate stood watch for predators. She was about to give birth. Their herd was not far off, but she had chosen this place to deliver her first calf. Unlike modern elephants, all Giralephants lived in large herds for protection, since their were a number of predators that could kill a lone Giralephant easily. The female was nervous. She had never given birth before, and she was scared. Thankfully, she knew her mate was there to comfort her and protect their new offspring.

Then it began. As she started to feel the pangs of labor, the mother tried to stay calm. Realizing what was happening, her mate was at her side within seconds. All through the night, the mother kept pushing and trumpeting in pain and stress. Her mate held her trunk tightly throughout the entire ordeal, not once willing to leave her side. Finally, at only a few hours 'til dawn, it happened. The calf had come into the world healthy and strong. The father went over to his new child and looked it over for anything wrong with it. The calf was a male, and there was nothing wrong about its appearence whatsoever. The father smiled and called to his mate, who looked back at the calf as the father carried it to her side. The mother shed tears of joy as the baby opened its golden-yellow eyes and trumpeted softly, snuggling up to his mother.

The father looked at his newborn son with pride, but suddenly heard a growl from behind. The mother's eyes went wide with terror as the male turned to see a huge lime green and yellow Macawnivore slink out of the similarly-colored ferns. The father groaned and stood in front of his family protectivly, but the predator was not intimidated. With a roar, it pounced onto the male's side, claws out. The father bellowed and threw the huge cat off of him and pounded the ground with his feet threateningly. The Macawnivore growled and charged foreward, but the father charged as well and crashed into the feline head-on. As the two beasts entered a power struggle, the mother suddenly heard a loud screech from the trees. A brightly-colored Bear Owl leaped out and snarled at the mother. It, along with the Macawnivore, had smelled the newborn calf. The mother stood up and trumpeted at the new predator while trying to keep the baby between her legs where she could protect him. Without warning, the Bear Owl screeched and pounced, but the mother retaliated by ramming it to the ground and growling in defiance.

Back with the father, he had seen the Bear Owl attack his mate, but hecould not help her with the Macawnivore constantly going at him. The Macawnivore roared and pounced again, but was hit by the father's trunk and crashed to the ground. The tusked cat looked up to see the father rearing up on his hind legs to crush him with his feet, but he leaped away before being smashed. The Macawnivore angrily roared before running away back into the forest. The father then charged over to his mate to help her fight off the Bear Owl, for she was beginning to lose the battle. The Bear Owl pounced at the mother, but was rammed away in midair by the father. The Bear Owl got back up and roared at the father who angrily trumpeted back, but was suddenly alerted by the mother: the Macawnivore had come back! The cat charged towards the calf, but was stopped by the father who was very angry now. The giant feline roared and swung its clawed paw at the father, managing to bloodily rip one of his eyes out! The father trumpeted in pain and remorselessly attacked the Macawnivore, and the mother was left to deal with the Bear Owl.

The calf was crying out in fright as it watched its parents be savagely attacked by the carnivores, but it stopped when it heard a loud, echoing, wolf-like howl reverberate through the jungle. The calf's parents heard it too. Suddenly, the howls got louder, and a pack of nearly a dozen Wolf Hawks came running out of the underbrush. The Macawnivore and Bear Owl were still attacking the parents, so the Wolf Hawks joined in and nearly overwhelmed the Giralephants while one of them went after the calf.

The baby howled in terror as the Wolf Hawk came after it, and the father saw his son about to be killed, and did the only thing he could to save him. The father stomped his feet and threw the predators off him and trumpeted very loudly into the forest, alerting the herd. Hearing the call for help, the alpha male, an enormous dark gray and auburn-colored Giralephant, roared and charged in the parents' direction, followed by his strongest subordinates.

The alpha and his comrades arrived just in time, as the parents were nearly completely overwhelmed. The alpha trumpeted and charged into the scene with his followers, attacking any carnivore that moved. Seizing this chance, the father grabbed the Wolf Hawk that had gone after his son and threw it into a tree trunk, breaking its spine. By now the Giralephants had fought off all the predators and were returning to the herd. The mother and father stayed behind to thank the alpha for coming to their rescue.

"We cannot thank you enough for saving us, Alpha, and our son." The father said. The Alpha responded:

"No thanks are necessary, Nordaan. As Alpha male of this herd, it is my sworn duty to protect all individuals to the latter." With that, they began to head back to the herd, but the parents stopped.

"Nordaan, we forgot to name our son!" The mother said.

"Really? Hm. We must've been too distracted by the fight. Well, what names did you have in mind?"

"Well, I was thinking about naming him Daru. Y'know, like your brother?"

"Daru. Wonderful choice! I perfect name for a prefect son." Daru seemed to like his name, and he was trying to stand up with joy. His father chuckled and pushed him to his feet.

"Come, young Daru. Your entire life awaits."

**6 months later...**

Daru was now 1/2 year old and was still being suckled by his mother. His herd had been migrating through dry scrubland for weeks now, and the Alpha said that they would reach their destination soon. Daru and the other calves were bored for most of the time, and they often ran around in play under watchful eyes of the herd. Along their travels they had seen many different creatures and places that filled them with wonder. However, they had on occasion been attacked by predators like Bear Owls and Wolf Hawks, and the calves would all hide in the center of the herd when they were attacked.

Out on the scrubland, there wasn't much food for the older Giralephants, so they had to scrounge almost everywhere for the sparse vegetation. This was no worry for Daru, however, as he still only drank his mother's milk. If he were to be seperated from her, the consequences would be dire.

For the next few weeks, the herd trudged on through the dry landscape, and at one point it rained for two days straight. Other than that, the herd just kept walking. Daru for one was not happy, and would much rather they get where they were going already.

"Mom? When are we going to get there?" He whined one day. The answer his mother gave him was less than satisfactory.

"I'm not sure, Daru. Just be patient and we'll be there in no time at all." Daru sighed. This was going to take forever.

One day, not long later, the herd reached a large, flat prairie covered in brown grass so tall that Daru and his friends had to stand up on the ends of their toes just to see above the grassline. They soon came up with a game in which one team would hide in the grass and the other would try to find them, with the searching team holding their trunks above the grass to signal eachother. The calves all had fun on their first day in the grasslands, but at around sunset, the calves' mothers all hastily called them back to the herd. They weren't sure why, but they obeyed anyway. When they got back to their mothers, the herd seemed uneasy and somewhat frightened. Each of the calves hurried back to their mothers, and then the Alpha trumpeted loudly as the sun sunk below the horizen. At the Alpha's signal, the Giralephants all hunkered down into the grass with the parents holding their children close, and the creature's brown manes and spots blended into the grass in the low light. As Daru listened, all the other creatures went quiet.

"Mommy, what's happening?" Daru asked his mother with worry in his voice.

"Shh! Be quiet, Daru! Stay absolutely still!" His mother hastily shushed him, and a moment later Daru knew why. Not 5 feet away from his face, Daru saw a small, brown-feathered bird with an oddly-shaped beak come out of the ground and squawk, showing its serated beak. A Northern Piranhakeet. It was followed by others, and the birds flapped their wings and took to the air, with even more following. Several of the Giralephants groaned in terror as thousands of the birds flocked together in a huge mass of brown. Daru had no idea why the herd was so afraid, but he then saw what the others were afraid of;

A small herd of Parrot Buffalo had been grazing nearby, when they saw the Piranhakeets. Knowing that they could never hide with their bright colors, the feathered bovines grunted in terror and made a run for it. Big mistake. Within seconds, they were spotted and the flock descended upon them in a tornado-like shape, and when they dispersed, Daru saw, to his total horror, that there was nothing left but bones. Daru whimpered in fear and pressed against his mother's side. Suddenly, one Piranhakeet landed just inches from Daru's face, and stared right into his eye. Daru's mother saw this and gasped. If she didn't do something, the Piranhakeet would signal the flock and the entire herd would be stripped to bare bone in seconds.

Daru watched silently as the Piranhakeet was about to call out to its flock, but he then saw something reach out from behind him. It was his mother's trunk! Daru's mother grabbed the bird before it could call its flock and crushed it to death with her trunk. Daru's mother sighed in releif. That had been too close. The herd eventually went to sleep that night, but sleep would not come to Daru.

A few days later, and Daru could still not forget his first encounter with Piranhakeets. At least he wasn't suffering alone. Many yearlings are terrified for days on end after their first Piranhakeet night. The adults had told him that Piranhakeets were undenyibly the deadliest creatures of the Croodaceous period, and the only defences other creatures had against them was either to camoflague themselves or stay hidden at night. So in that sense, the animals weren't afraid of the dark, they were afraid of what was in the dark: Piranhakeets.

Speaking of which, it was late afternoon and the herd was almost off the plains, headed towards lush, dense jungle across a wide river. However, the Alpha saw the position of the sun and ordered the herd that they couldn't cross now and would have to wait for morning. The herd groaned and began to settle down into the tall grass, but suddenly they heard a loud, low howl in the distance. The herd grew wary. Wolf Hawks. Just like the ones that had attacked Daru the night he was born, only this pack was much larger. The Alpha Wolf Hawk was crouched in the grass with nearly a dozen others behind him and surrounding the herd, and their target was Daru.

With an earsplitting howl, the Wolf Hawks charged the herd. The Giralephants had no time to ready themselves. One of the predators screeched and leaped onto Daru's mother and clawed at her hide, effectivly distracting her so two others could attack Daru. The baby Giralephant screamed and ran away from the herd onto the plains, the Wolf Hawks hot on his tail.

Daru's parents had shaken off the attack and suddenly saw their only son being chased down by the predators. Daru's father, Nordaan, roared and charged after them to save his son.

As the Wolf Hawks were gaining on Daru, one of them with a black mark across his eye, named Claw, saw the sun setting. Knowing that they would be doomed if they kept up the chase, Claw barked to the others of his pack, alerting them of the danger. The others stopped chasing Daru and saw the sun, and they all yelped in fear and took off.

Daru looked back to see no Wolf Hawks chasing him, but by doing so he could not see where he was going. He stumbled and fell when he stepped on something that squawked. He looked back to see dozens of Piranhakeets waking and glaring at him, and then taking to the air and diving towards him. Daru yelped and ran.

Nearby, Nordaan had seen the birds go after Daru and skidded to a stop. Panting heavily, he quickly decided on what he had to do. With an echoing bellow, Nordaan charged towards the flock and his son, completely willing to sacrifice himself for Daru.

Daru suddenly tripped and fell, and would have quite literally been eaten alive if his father hadn't charged onto the scene and trumpeted at the birds, successfully drawing their attention away from Daru and onto him. Daru saw his father and cried out;

"Dad! What are you doing?!"

"I'm saving your life, son! Now run! Run back to your mother, and don't worry about me! Run and don't look back!" Obeying his father, Daru ran back in the direction of the herd, but unfortunately, a few of the Piranhakeets saw Daru running and and went after him! Daru saw the birds going after him and tried to outmanuever them, and by doing so ended up getting lost in the grass and completely cut off from the herd.

Daru suddenly found himself out of the grass and on the shore of the river. He halted at the water's edge and looked behind him. The Piranhakeets were only meters from him, and Daru had a choice between being eaten and swimming for it. Actually a very easy choice. Daru closed his eyes and leaped into the water just before the ravenous flesh-eaters of the sky could get him. As far as Daru knew, Piranhakeets didn't swim, which was awfully ironic considering they were part fish.

Once he was completely submerged, Daru opened his eyes. The river was a lot deeper than it looked. Daru was awestruck at the mesmerizing water world around him, but he then saw a small group of creatures swimming towards him. The creatures were fishlike with armored hides remeniscent of crocodile's scales. The creatures were predatory Sharkodiles, vicious amphibious carnivores able to breath on land and underwater. Daru quickly paddled away as the Sharkodiles bared their rows of teeth and followed in hot persuit. Daru was nearing the other side of the river, but suddenly his leg was bitten by one of the Sharkodiles! The shock caused Daru to accidentily hit his head hard against a rock and gasp, causing all the air to escape from his lungs. Daru would've been drowned and eaten, had not a huge creature stepped into the river and scared off the Sharkodiles. As Daru slipped into unconciousness, a large, long, elephantine trunk wrapped around him and pulled him out of the water.

Daru slowly awoke hours later. As his eyes wearily blinked open, he saw that he was high above the ground and surrounded by lush jungle. He soon realized that something was carrying him, and he could see the creature's feet stamping through the underbrush below. Whatever was carrying him, it was big. His vision faded as he blacked out from exhaustion again.

The animal that had rescued Daru and was now carrying him through the jungle was an enormous, young female Swamp Tree Elephant named Zigani. She looked the same as any other of her kind, though she had a few sky blue spots on her "feathers", her legs had a slight reddish tinge, and her eyes were bright auburn red. She had been at the river for a drink before she hid as a tree when the Piranhakeets came out, but while hiding she had seen the young Giralephant calf jump into the river and be attacked by the Sharkodiles. Seeing the young one in need of help provoked her to disobey her instict to hide and come to his rescue. She scared off the Sharkodiles and fished Daru out of the water with her trunk so he could breath. Thankfully, she had managed to get him out of the water just in time before he drowned, and quickly ran back into the forest before the Piranhakeets came back. Zigani was now carrying the calf through the deep jungle beneath the light of the full moon, and she knew where she was going.

Zigani soon arrived at her destination with Daru still in tow. Standing before her was a cluster of tightly-knit trees. She looked around until she spotted him: an extremely ancient male Swamp Tree Elephant whose true name was known by nobody alive. Zigani approached the elder. He was both blind and deaf and couldn't speak, but his senses of smell and touch were superb. As Zigani approached, the old one became alerted by the vibrations she made in the ground and smelled her. Realizing that she was, indeed, a Swamp Tree Elephant, the elder stepped aside to reveal the only entrance to an enormous, lush grove, completely enclosed by trees whose branches formed together to create a massive supertree, whose leaves and vines spread completely over the top, sealing the grove beneath a canopy of leaves, which hid it from Piranhakeets. The trees that made up the edges grew in very close proximity of each other, allowing only the smallest of creatures in, and the only entrance was, as said before, guarded 24/7/365 by the elder pachyderm, looking like just another tree so no predators could possibly enter. The ground was completely covered in soft moss, lichen, and algae. This place was a sanctuary for Zigani's kind, and was mostly used as a birthing ground or a place to heal after injury. Zigani had brought Daru here so that he would be safe for the night. She soon came to the center of the grove and gathered a bed of soft ferns and moss, and laid Daru down on it. Zigani then carefully hunkered down herself, and laid her massive body beside Daru so he was snuggled against her soft, warm, feathery covering. With a last look a Daru, Zigani rested her head on the mossy ground and fell asleep beside him.

The next morning, Daru gradually woke up to see that he was in a strange place. However, he could not remember how he got here or where he came from. The blow to the head from that rock in the river had given him amnesia, and he had forgotten everything other than his own name and a few other details of his identity. He blinked his eyes and stared out into the enclosure where he had been taken, morning sunlight filtering through the leaves. He soon realized that the bush he was lying against wasn't a bush.

Daru turned his head to see Zigani had awoken and was looking down at him. Daru was transixed. He had never seen a creature so large!

"You're awake." Zigani said in a voice that sounded soft and kind in contrast to her great size. Frightened of such a behemoth, Daru whimpered and tried to move away.

"No need to be afraid, little one." Zigani said as she stood up to her full, massive height. "I won't hurt you."

Daru was still uneasy. How could he trust such a towering creature whom he didn't know? Zigani lowered her head down to his level and asked:

"What's your name?"

"D-Daru." Daru responded, his voice trembling.

"How old are you?" Zigani asked again.

"Six months."

"Hmm." Zigani mulled. "That means you're still nursing, right?"

"I guess." Daru was starting to feel more comfortable now, but he was still confused.

"Where's your mother?" Zigani continued. Daru's eyes grew wide; he could not remember his mother, or his father, or his entire previous life, for that matter!

"I...I-I don't know. I can't remember." Zigani was taken aback by this reply. This "Daru" was an orphan! Abandoned at not even a year old, and not even able to remember his past! Zigani looked into his wide, frightened and confused eyes. He was all alone. _You know what you have to do._ Zigani's inner voice said, and she did know. She exhaled heavily, unsure of the outcome of what she was about to say.

"Daru?" She began. The young Giralephant looked up at her with his golden eyes. "My name is Zigani. I rescued you from that river and braught you here. I understand that you're now an orphan. I know that you're scared, but the two of us are much alike."

"How?" Daru asked innocently. Zigani sighed.

"Because I was lost when I was a baby, too." Daru was shocked when she admitted this. "I never knew what it was like to have a mom and dad, and I've never lived with others of my kind, and I've never even had a chance to be a mother before." Daru was struck with sympathy from what he was hearing. Daru stepped over to Zigani and hugged her foot, and she looked down at him and smiled warmly. Daru stared back and smiled.

"Daru?" Zigani said as she and the Giralephant calf locked eyes. "Would you like to stay here...with me?"

Daru was completely taken by surprise when Zigani said this. However, a huge smile soon materialized on his face, and he wrapped his front legs around Zigani's leg and shut his eyes as tears of happiness began to trickle down his cheeks, and the same happened with Zigani, for that was all the yes she needed. She leaned down and curled her trunk around Daru's body and lifted him off the ground and up to her chest where she wrapped him in her fluffy, green arms and hugged him close.

Daru was filled blissful happiness, and imagined as having Zigani as his new mother. All of a sudden, they both heard Daru's stomach grumble. He hadn't been fed in almost two days. Zigani chortled to herself and looked down at him.

"You hungry?" She asked with a hint of sarcasm. Daru giggled and nodded. Zigani laughed again and set him on the the ground, and she then got down on her knees so that Daru could reach.

"Drink up." Daru was, of course, a little uneasy about nursing from another creature, but he soon gave in and went for it. He lifted his trunk out of the way and went under her.

Zigani breathed out with content. She had never felt the blissful, warm feeling of a child nursing on her before. It was total euphoria for her, and for Daru, who had never tasted Swamp Tree Elephant milk before. For him it was sweet and rich, and for her it was warm and ecstatic.

Later, the two of them were resting on the ground, Daru cuddled against Zigani's side. Zigani was looking at him with almost motherly adoration in her eyes. Daru then had a question;

"Zigani?" She lifted her head and peered down at him.

"What is it?" Daru felt a little awkward saying this, but he went for it anyway.

"Does...does this mean...that..you're my new mom?" Zigani's eyes widened at the child's inquiry, and she had a little trouble coming up with a good answer.

"Well, I guess so...but you don't have to think of me like a mom. I mean, think of me more as a big sister...who also suckles you. No, wait." Daru could see that Zigani was having trouble, but decided to see how it played out.

"Ok, consider me like uh, your best friend...whom you nurse from. *sigh!* This is impossible. I'm sort of like your mother, but also your sister...that's a whole lot worse."

Daru was laughing now, and Zigani noticed. "You think this is funny, huh? Well, do you think _THIS_ is funny?" She began to furiously tickle him with her trunk, making him squeal with laughter.

"Stoppit! Stoppit!" He managed to beg between fits of laughter. Still Zigani would not stop. She giggled and tickled him harder, and he soon retaliated and climbed up on her back.

"Can't get me!" He playfully teased.

"Oh yeah? C'mere, you!" She jumped up and playfully chased after him all through the grove, eventually tackling him to the ground and wrapping him in her trunk. "Gotcha!" She said, and carried Daru back to the center of the grove and set him down on the lichen-covered ground before doing the same herself.

"Alright, that's enough fun for now. We have to get some sleep."

"Ohh, why? I don't wanna sleep!" Daru whined. Zigani just rolled her eyes and tucked under her arm.

"Well you need to." She stated. Daru gave in and snuggled up to her chest, and she lovingly nuzzled him. "Sweet dreams."

"So have you decided yet?" Daru sleepily asked. Zigani was confused.

"Decided what?" She return questioned.

"Have you decided what I'm supposed to call you? Are you my new mom, or something else?"

"Oh! That." Zigani realized. She still hadn't solved that issue. "Well, seeing as I can't decide for the life of me how to honestly answer that, why don't we just say that I'm your new big sister, and leave it at that. Ok?"

"Ok." Daru sleepily replied before yawning tiredly and closing his eyes. "Goodnight, "big sister"." Zigani smiled warmly and kissed his forehead.

"Sleep tight, little brother."

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**Major cuteness! nUn **

**I'm certain you all loved this chapter, and yes, I think it may have been a little age-inappropriate to include that nursing scene. Feel free to add positive critisism. Also, I will tell the rest of Daru's story in a future chap. So for now, enjoy reading this part.**

**A/N: I said Zigani had feathers because, apparently(according to Wikipedia, at least) her species is a bird/elephant hybrid. Personally I think that's just dumb.**

**A/N 2: Yes, I know the Piranhakeets in the film were red, but the ones shown here are a different, Northerner subspecies. The red ones live on plains of red grass, so it only ****makes sense that brown grassland would have brown Piranhakeets.**

**Also, Claw the Wolf Hawk will reappear.**


	6. Chapter 6: Check Back

**In this chapter we continue with Neroc, Grunt, Darg, and Rozz, and how they make it down from the cliffs. And yes, this is the first check-back chapter, and the next one likely won't come for a while. Sorry!**

**I own nothing.**

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"Careful! Be careful!"

"Will you just hush up and let me concetrate where I put my feet?!"

"Ouch! You're stepping on my tail!"

"Sorry!"

"QUIET! All of you! Do you want to me slip and send all of us falling to our doom?!"

"Sorry, Neroc." Neroc the Bear Owl was in the middle of trying to climb down the sheer cliff that was between him and the jungle, and with three troublesome, quarreling, and not-exactly-lightweight Vulture Gorillas clinging to his back. After their desert home had been destroyed- no...obliterated is a better word- the 4 of them had decided to call a truce until they could get down from the unstable cliffs and out of the jungle, and the only problem, apparently, was getting down there. Neroc was carefully climbing down the cliff face backwards, while Grunt, Darg and Rozz where supposed to be telling him where to set his paws. They were of little help. Grunt and Rozz were bickering about which ledge would be safer to step on, and Darg was just cowering on Neroc's shoulders, covering his eyes. Neroc groaned; he truly had no idea of what could possibly be more pathetic.

"Hey!" Neroc shouted to Grunt and Rozz, "Are you imbeciles going to quit arguing, or do I have to drop you?!" The aforementioned Vulture Gorillas quickly silenced themselves, not wanting to be dropped, because they were positive Neroc would do it if he wanted to.

"Are we down there yet?" Darg wimpily asked, peeking out from behind his claws a little.

"Does it look like we're there, egg-brain?" Neroc had had quite enough of the trio, and was indeed considering whether or not to toss 'em overboard and eat their dead bodies when he got down.

"Hey! Lay off him, will you?" Grunt snorted.

"Uh, guys?" Darg began,

"WHAT?!" Darg was a little frightened when everybody shouted at him, and pointed out to the sky withy a trembling hand. "T-there's some giant bird coming right at us!" The other 3 looked up to see a young Turtle Dove flying towards them, but it stopped a good ways away from the cliff and hovered there.

"Howdy!" It said. "You folks lost?"

"Uh...you could say that." Neroc responded awkwardly as his foot slipped on a pebble. The Turtle Dove just laughed to himself. He wasn't even close to adult size, but he was still quite a bit larger than Neroc himself.

"Need some directions?"

"That...would be helpful," Grunt said as he clung to Neroc's feathers. "But we could also use a way down!"

"Hmm. I'm afraid I can't help ya' with that, pal." The Turtle Dove said. "Sorry 'bout that!" With that the turtle flew away, leaving our heroes stranded on the cliff with no safe way down and faces that said 'seriously?'.

"Well that's just great!" Rozz yelled in frustration. "I mean, you don't just come up to someone and ask if you can help, and then just leave when it turns out that you can't! I mean, really?!"

"Will you stop thrashing around?!" Neroc shouted. "I don't...think...I can-" His foot suddenly slipped and the rock he was clinging to broke off, leaving him hanging by one arm, which the rock under broke off, too.

**"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!"** They all screamed as they fell.

"I regret nothing!" Rozz screamed into the air. "Except running off when my girlfriend laid eggs!" He then looked around to see the others looking at him shamefully.

"What?"

"Dude. That is shameful." Grunt criticized before they all went back to screaming. As they fell through the leafy conopy, Neroc suddenly had an idea. He reached out to the nearest tree trunk and grabbed onto it, digging his claws into the bark. Grunt, Darg and Rozz grabbed onto his tail before he came to a stop. They were hanging again.

"Well! That was close!" Grunt said as he and his cronies climbed up Neroc's body and onto the nearest branch, and then helped Neroc up.

"Thanks." The Bear Owl said once his feet were on a horizontal surface again. "Now c'mon. Let's see if we can find the ground."

The Vulture Gorillas and Bear Owl started climbing down the tree trunk, though with difficulty, since none of them were used to climbing down a tree this large. On the way down, the group got to witness some of the many wonders of the jungle, including the fact that some fruits taste a lot like Emel meat.

Eventually, the foursome made it to ground level, and Neroc was the first to gladly prance around on the lush terrain.

"Where are we?" Darg inquired.

"Not sure." Neroc answered. "But I think it's safe to say that there's no going back." Neroc then caught a whiff of something new. He stood up on his hind legs and sniffed the air, smelling the distinct scent of another Bear Owl. He snarled, alerting Grunt and the others.

"Yo, Neroc? What is it?" Grunt asked as Neroc traced the scent to a large cluster of magenta-red ferns and trees and snarled louder. Suddenly, another Bear Owl jumped out of the plants and roared, sizing up Neroc. It was a female. She looked like the larger Neroc for the most part, but was slimmer and colored magenta-red, just like the plants. Grunt, Darg and Rozz hurried behind a large tree root, as fights between Bear Owls could get particularly ugly.

"Who are you, and what are you doing here?!" The female Bear Owl snarled as they began to circle eachother.

"The name's Neroc, and I'm only here because the desert's been destroyed." Neroc growled back.

"I'm called Flare." The female said. "And I've never heard of a brown Bear Owl, of all things!"

"Well, I've never heard of a Bear Owl being any other color but brown. Care to explain?" Flare just snarled again.

"Leave. Before I kill you and your buddies over there." She threatened, referring to Grunt and company.

"That's cute." Neroc said with a laugh. "You actually think you could beat me in a fight! Well, I got news for you, 'Flare'. Where I come from from, I'm the deadliest thing alive."

"That might have been true in YOUR homeland," Flare growled. "But not out here." Neroc laughed again.

"And what is the deadliest thing out here, then? You?" Flare narrowed her eyes and stepped closer to him.

"NO. I'M. NOT." Neroc was, in fact, quite surprised and even frightened to hear this, and the killer look of pure seriousness on Flare's face confirmed that she was telling the truth. Neroc backed away, and motioned for the Vulture Gorilla's to follow him before he ran off into the brush, Grunt and company right behind him.

"What was that about?" Grunt asked Neroc when they had gotten far enough away from Flare's territory. Neroc was still, however, trying to process that his kind weren't the dominant predators of this region. His whole life, his mother and father had told him and his siblings that Bear Owls were the toughest, most dangerous carnivores out there. Now he was thinking, _"what could be more dangerous?"_. If Bear Owls weren't the apex predators around here, then what was? For the time being, Neroc had no idea.

Soon, Grunt, Darg, Rozz and Neroc came across a large troup of blue monkeys with unusually meaty hands who looked at them passively. Grunt went up to the largest one, who appeared to be the leader, and said:

"Pardon me, Sir, but we're a tad lost and would like to know if you could point us to the nearest edge of the jungle?" The Punch Monkey leader grinned.

"Sure, I'll give ya directions...if you can beat me in a fistfight!" Grunt's face fell.

"I'm sorry, what?" was all he could say before he was creamed right in the face by the lead monkey's oversized fist. Neroc looked away as the sickening crack was heard.

The Punch Monkeys all laughed and whooped in excitement as Grunt sat up and cracked his jaw back into place.

"Alright, that's it!" He said with a growl. Grunt through an uppercut at the leader, but the primate swiftly dodged the blow and retaliated with a hard right hook to the Gorilla Vulture's temple. Grunt snarled and beat his feathered chest angrily before going after the leader and chasing him up the tree trunk.

Up amongst the branches, Grunt repeatedly tried to grab the monkey by the tail, but the agile non-hybrid was too quick for him, and nailed Grunt in the face at every oppurtunity. Finally, Grunt had had enough. He roared and slammed both fists on the trunk of the tree so hard that it toppled over, causing them both to fall out.

Grunt was about to finish off the leader, when the monkey suddenly called out to his subordinates, and dozens upon dozens of monkeys began pounding all four of the newcomers with their fists.

"Let's get outta here!" Neroc yelled before the foursome broke into a made run. The Punch Monkeys all laughed at them as they ran off.

"You just HAD to go after him." Rozz announced to Grunt's annoyance.

"Ahh, shut your beak."

Eventually, the group came to the edge of the jungle and sprinted out onto a plain of red grass with some shrub-trees here and there. Grunt also noticed that there were many small cave-like holes littering the prairie.

"Hey guys! Look at this!" Darg said off-screen. The three looked over to see the Vulture Gorilla enter one of the caves.

"This looks like a nice place to sleep!" Suddenly, to Grunt, Rozz and Neroc's horror, the "cave" suddenly clamped shut and was revealed to be a large Ground Whale when it stood up.

"Um, excuse us?" Grunt said as he approached the cetacean. It looked at him tiredly.

"What?" It said.

"Uh, I think...you, um, just...ate our friend."

"Hm? Oh, sorry. So that's what tastes so horrible. One sec." The Ground Whale then sucked in a large breath and shot it out its blowhole, with Darg flying out with it and landing on the ground hard.

"That...was...awesome!" He said as he got up. The Ground Whale then noticed that the sun was beginning to set, and his eyes widened in horror.

"You guys better hide!" He said as he began to settle back into the ground.

"What? Why?" Neroc asked as darkness passed over them. All the other Ground Whales simultaniously clamped their maws shut. Then, a small, red bird came out from the cover of the grass and chirped before taking to the air, followed by many, many more.

"THAT'S why!" The Ground Whale said before clamping shut and taking the appearence of a rock.

"What's to be afraid of?" Neroc inquired. "They're just little birds!" The birds had now condensed into a huge flock.

"They ain't just any birds! Those are _**PIRANHAKEETS!"**_

"Pir-whatta-keets?" Darg said in confusion. Suddenly, to the foursome's horror, the Piranhakeets spotted a stray Ramu that tried to run, but was instantly swarmed in a tornado-like fashion, enveloped, and was left as no more than a skeleton when the birds dispersed. Neroc, Grunt, Darg, and Rozz stared at the bone pile in wide-eyed horror, before the Piranhakeets spotted them and charged.

**"RUUUUUUUUUUUUNNN!"** Neroc screamed. Without hesitating, Grunt and his thugs screeched and ran in one direction, while Neroc took off the other way. However, the Piranhakeet flock split up and went after both targets.

"What're we gonna do, Grunt?!" Darg yelled as the trio scrambled over some large rocks, the ravenous birds hot on their tails.

"Just shut up and keep running!" Suddenly, Grunt saw a place to hide; a cluster of giant corn was not far off, and there looked to be just enough room in the center to hide all three of them.

"In there!" Grunt shouted. They had almost made it when Darg suddenly tripped on a root and fell. Grunt saw him fall and immediately ran back, grabbed Darg, lifted him, and threw him all the way into the corn patch where Rozz was waiting. However, Grunt now had nowhere to hide, as the Piranhakeets were barely a 5 yards behind him.

Grunt grunted and ran faster than he ever had in his entire life, but the birds were still gaining.

Not far off, Neroc was only just managing to outrun his persuers, when he saw Grunt about to be overwhelmed by the rest of the flock. Suddenly, without thinking, and having no reason in his mind for doing so, Neroc changed direction and charged towards Grunt and pounced, pushing him out of the way just before the Piranhakeets caught him.

They two of them landed hard on the ground. When they got up, all Grunt could do was stare at Neroc slack-jawed. However, the Piranhakeets weren't through with them yet.

"Run!" Neroc shouted before they took off again. However, the fall had bruised Grunt's elbow badly, and he couldn't move without hurting himself. Seeing Grunt's stride falter, Neroc quickly scooped him up onto his back and ran as fast as he possibly could.

Soon, unfortunately, Neroc began to tire, but the birds would not give up on persuing their quarry. Neroc then saw a large wateringhole ahead and got an idea.

"Hang on!" Neroc told Grunt before leaping and plunging into the water, completely submerging the both of them. As they disappeared under the water, the Piranhakeets did not follow, and decided to find easier food elsewhere. Once they were far away, Neroc and Grunt burst from the water, gasping for air. When they had finally caught their breath, the Bear Owl and Vulture Gorilla heaved themselves back onto dry land. Neroc looked around the night sky to see if any birds remained, but Grunt merely stared at him in stupor. Neroc finally noticed and asked;

"What?" Grunt pushed himself up and came closer to Neroc, still wearing the same expression.

"Y-you...you saved my life." He said, still trembling.

"Yeah? What of it?" Neroc snorted. Grunt hesitated for a minute,

"T-thank you." Neroc just growled to himself and looked away. Grunt smiled; he knew that Neroc was only acting like saving someone's life was no big deal because he didn't want anyone to think he was a softy. At that moment, Darg and Rozz caught up to them.

"Guys! Thank Instict you're alright!" Darg said upon arriving.

"We thought those birds ate ya!" Rozz added.

"At least we're all safe and sound." Grunt replied. "Isn't that right, Neroc?" The Bear Owl merely grunted and didn't look in their direction.

"Well, since we're outta the jungle, I guess that means the truce is over then." Darg pointed out. The others went wide-eyed when they realized this, including Neroc.

"In that case, I guess this is goodbye, Neroc." Grunt said with some regret in his voice. Neroc did turn to look at him this time, a mixed expression on his white face.

"C'mon, boys." Grunt began to leave with Rozz and Darg behind him, when Neroc spoke up.

"Just a second!" He said. The trio turned to face him. "In spite of recent events, it's apparent that you three can't protect yourselves well much out here. That's why I've decided, on my own terms, to go with you until you find someplace to settle, so you have someone to watch your tails out there so they don't get bitten off." Grunt smiled brightly when he heard Neroc announce this, as you can imagine.

"Now, c'mon! Those Piranhakeets could fly back at any time, so move it!" At Neroc's command, the group set off again across the plains with Neroc in front, and Grunt behind him, smiling happily to himself.

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**And so ends another chapter. I hope you all liked this one, and there's much more to come!**

**And by the way, yes, Flare IS the red Bear Owl at the end of the movie, and no, there WON'T be a romance between her and Neroc.**

**As always, constructive criticism is encouraged, but no flames!(not that there likely would be any anyway, but y'know)**


	7. Chapter 7: Guardian

**Welcome back, readers! I sincerely hope you are all enjoying this fic, because this chapter is going to make it a whole lot better!**

**We are introcduced to Larah, a third human OC, who is an orphan with nobody left. However, she soon meets someone who will change her life forever. This chapter will contain human and animal talking, just to clarify.**

**A/N: Like the last chapter introducing human OCs, this one is set before the movie, about 5 years.**

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Far out in the desert on a high boulder, a large, bipedal creature sprinted up to the top and surveyed the area. This land was a kingdom, and he bore the crown. The creature was a male Ramu, but like none ever seen before; he was enormous, much more than double the normal adult size. His feathers were pitch black with numerous violet streaks, but the most unique thing of all was his horns: he had four of them. The first pair curled back like normal, but the second curved back and didn't swirl, much like a modern goat's. The mighty Ramu's name was Corron, and he was unmatched by any foe. Even the terrifying Bear Owl, Neroc, wouldn't dare challenge him. Many creatures both feared but also respected Corron, for he was a hero. He had saved the lives of hundreds of creatures, great and small. Many years ago, when an enormous, devastating unseasonal flood had all but destroyed the lower desert, Corron had doven into the treacherous water and swum across to save an entire pack of Liyotes, and had later used his great strength to push over a tree to make a bridge over a torrenting river for the animals to cross. And another time, when a devastating sandstorm from the north enveloped the desert, it was Corron who had led a mixed herd of Ramus and Emels with numerous young into the canyons to safety. Corron was a truly righteous creature, one worthy of reverence.

Corron looked up into the sky and saw dark clouds converging. A storm was on the way. Rainfall was very rare in the desert, but it still came once every year for a few days.

As the life-giving rain began to pour down steadily from the sky, not at all like the flood all those years ago, Corron's sensitive ears picked up a noise. He had rarely ever heard this sound before, and was even surprised by it! It was the faint, tearjerking sound of crying. At first, Corron didn't know if the crying creature was in danger, injured, or just upset, but he felt it was worth checking out. He ran off in the direction of the crying. If the animal was in danger, he would save it. If it was injured, he would help it find a safe place to rest and then leave. If it was merely sad about something, like a friend or relative dying, he would just leave it be.

Corron followed the crying noise into the canyons. When he had finally found where it was coming from, he carefully snuck towards it behind rocks until he was close enough to see without revealing himself. What he saw was a surprise for him. Only a few meters ahead was a weeping, lone cavegirl.

The cavegirl was 7 years old and named Larah. She had medium length black hair with a ponytail and a brownish streak, blue eyes, and wore a red, spotted animal skin. However, there was one single distinguishing feature about Larah that set her aside from all other humans, cave-dwelling or otherwise, that Corron had seen before: she had a tail. Seriously! This cavegirl had a tail! And not one of those bogus, vestigial tails like the one that cavewoman from **"When Women Had Tails"** had. No, Larah had a full, 2-meter long, fuzzy, animal-like tail with a tuft of red hair at the end.

As Larah cried, her tail was curled around her, showing that she was able to control it like any animal could. In fact, it was because of her tail that she had been abandoned. She was born into a family of harsh, brutish cavemen, all of which were older than her and none of which were at all like her. They were thuggish and violent, especially to the animals that they hunted. Even Neroc, Daru, and Sorith themselves were afraid of them! Corron remembered now. Those same cavemen had killed his parents, and three of his brothers and sisters! Only his youngest brother had escaped. Larah was not accepted at all by her "family", and in fact, she had given the name 'Larah' to herself.

For seven years she put up with the abuse, until yesterday, that is. Yesterday, she had finally had enough of her older siblings bullying her, so she retaliated by whipping them in the face with her tail. This just made them crazed angry, enough for her fuzz-head parents to throw her out of the cave and leave her outside. Larah then ran away, into the canyon, and here she was. Larah had no home, and nobody to look after her. But worst of all, she was alone. As Larah continued to cry, she hugged her tail and used it to feebly wipe her tears.

Corron felt immense pity befall him. He was not a fan of cavemen, to put it lightly, but to see one so young and pathetic all alone and broken inside, it just broke his stern heart. Lightning suddenly flashed above, followed by booming thunder. Larah whimpered in fear and hugged her tail again as more tears streaked down her cheeks. Unable to watch any longer, Corron held his breath and left the hiding rocks, slowly and quietly approaching the sobbing cavegirl.

Larah still had her face in her hands, so she did not see Corron reveal himself. Corron then squawked lightly, making his presence known. Larah quickly looked up when she heard Corron squawk, and her eyes immediately went wide with fear. She had never seen a Ramu so enormous(and with double the amount of horns, no less), and now one was standing before her. Corron was well over 5 times her size, but he meant no harm. As Corron slowly stepped towards her, she tried to scoot away, but was stopped by the canyon wall, and she could not climb. Corron had now reached her, his face just inches away from hers, and stared directly into her eyes.

"Please don't kill me!" Larah whimpered as she covered her face with her hands. However, Corron merely backed away a few feet and sat down, keeping his eyes on her. Corron had looked at her so closely just to inspect her, and he could detect no wrongfulness in her. _The instinct is strong with her._ He thought. Eventually, Larah opened her eyes and looked at Corron, who was still completely calm and still. He was doing this as a way to gain her trust.

Carefully, Larah approached him. He was showing no signs of aggression, fear, or suspicion, and Larah was very uncertain of what he would do. Slowly, she crawled forward until she was less than a meter away from him. Corron looked down at her and blinked, still not daring to move should it frighten her. Larah then cautiously reached out her hand and touched it to his muscly chest, feeling his mighty heartbeat. Then, she reached her hand up towards his face, and Corron lowered his head so that Larah could touch her palm to his beak. Corron then closed his eyes, feeling her warm touch. At that moment, the both of them were truly happy.

When Larah removed her hand and Corron looked down at her again, he saw that her tears were gone and she was smiling, and- were his eyes deceiving him? Because he could plainly see that Larah was openly _wagging her tail_ just so slightly. Corron then clucked and wrapped his neck around her affectionately, making her giggle heartily.

"My name's Larah." She said. "And I think that we're gonna be friends!" Corron was initially surprised by this statement, since he had been a loner for the past several years, never forming close bonds with anybody. However, he clearly brightened this little girl's spirits, judging by her huge smile and her tail that was wagging back and forth furiously now. At that moment, Corron made a decision. He would look after Larah, protect her, and teach her in the ways of instinct, so that she would be able to survive on her own one day. As the rain began to let up, Larah yawned tiredly. Corron chuckled to himself and gently picked her up in his beak and deposited her onto his back before moving on to a large boulder with soft sand at the top where she could sleep. There, he gentily set her down onto the softest patch of sand where she immediately laid down and wrapped her tail around her small body and fell asleep. Corron smiled and sat down beside her and looked out at the setting sun.

The next morning, the canyon was shrouded in mist from the rain. Larah slowly woke up and yawned, rubbing her eyes as she sat up. She soon realized that she was alone on the rock. She was frightened. Where was the Ramu?

"Hello?" She called out into the mist. "Hello? Ramu? Are you out there?" Still no answer. Larah started whining in fear. Had the gigantic, but gentle Ramu abandoned her?

She called out for him again, but still nothing. She jumped down from the rock and looked around the fog, but could see no sign of the bird other than a trail of footprints leading away from the rock. She began to cry again. The Ramu had abandoned her. She slumped down and held her tail tightly in her hands, crippled by loneliness and the belief that she'd been abandoned yet again. Then, she heard footsteps coming towards her, fast. At first, she thought it was an animal coming to kill her, but then she heard the footsteps stop for a second, and then start back up again, this time much faster. Moments later, Corron burst through the mist and saw Larah weeping. Dropping the dead Parrot Buffalo calf he had been carrying in his beak, he swiftly was at her side and trying to comfort her. Larah looked up to see Corron right there and, overjoyed that he had come back, squealed with excitement and wrapped her arms around his neck.

"Where did you go?" She asked once she let go. Corron then squawked and dragged the carcass over, hinting to her that he had left to get food. She understood quickly and mentally slapped herself for thinking he had left her. She was just so afraid of being alone that she had assumed the worst. She then hugged Corron's leg in apology. Corron understood, and promised to never leave her. The two of them then dug into the carcass, with Corron saving the meatiest, most nutricious parts for Larah. While they were eating, Corron swore to try and teach Larah to speak animal language, so that they could understand eachother with words, and he would also train her to protect herself and to hunt.

Over the next year, Corron taught Larah to speak Animal, at first by talking to her in his tongue, and she began to understand what he was trying to say. Then, when she wanted to learn the language, she said random human words to Corron, who repeated them in Animal. For instance, the phrase for "My name is _" in Animal was **"MAAAAAAWWWWW!"**.

It continued like this for the next 8 months, until, on the last day of that year, when Corron was telling Larah his name in Animal, something extraordinary happened.

"Ok, what's your name? Your real name?" She had asked. His reply was:

**"MAAAAWW**-my name is Corron." Larah's eyes went wide with surprise. Had she really just heard what she thought she did?

"S-say that again?" she said uneasily.

"My name is Corron.'' The Ramu repeated. That confirmed it. Larah could understand what Corron was saying! She could understand Animal!

"I...I understood you." She said with a shaking voice. Corron was so shocked by this he had to ask again.

"W-what?" She could hear the shock in his voice.

"I understood you!"

"Y-you did?!"

"Yes!" Larah squealed in excitment. "I can speak Animal!"

"By the Sun, you are!" Corron shouted. "Finally! We can talk to eachother directly, and I won't have to use body motions to tell you something." Larah was so excited, she jumped up and hugged Corron's neck tight, and even wrapping her tail around him as well. Corron was very proud of Larah, for she was the first human to speak to animals, and he had taught her.

Over the next few months, Corron trained Larah to both hunt and master the art of stealth, and she was learning well. He also taught her to use her tail in almost every situation, even to use it as a rope and even a weapon. He also taught her to use her brain as well as her strength, for when both were working together, an organism was almost unstoppable.

One day, however, when Larah was out by herself in the desert, she was approached by a certain trio of Vulture Gorillas.

"Well, well. Look what we've got ourselves here." Grunt said mockingly. "A cave-baby all by herself." His cronies chuckled at this. Larah, however, was not as impressed.

"Hey! I am not a baby!" She stated. Hearing her talk in their language surprised the bullies a little.

"Looks like the brat can speak Animal." Darg said. Larah's anger was rising further.

"Not only that! She's got a tail!" Rozz pointed out. The three laughed teasingly when they saw that. Larah was only getting madder, and her tail was swinging back and forth with rage.

"Looks like she can use it, too!" Grunt laughed jerkily. That was it. Larah screeched like an animal and pounced at Grunt, but the Vulture Gorilla grabbed her by the tail, incapacitating her. Grunt's cronies laughed hysterically when Larah tried to scratch at Grunt's face, but they stopped laughing when Grunt was rammed onto his back by a black and purple blur, making him drop Larah.

"What the?" Grunt rubbed his head as he stood back up to see a very, _**VERY**_ angry Corron standing protectively in front of Larah. Darg and Rozz were staring slack-jawed at the sight of their boss on the ground.

"Don't just stand there, you idiots! Get 'em!" Grunt commanded. Darg and Rozz glared at Corron and growled, and then charged at him, thinking they could take him on. Bad idea. Corron screeched and ran at the scavengers, and knocked Darg to ground in one hit. Rozz, shocked for a moment, then tried to punch the Ramu in the beak, but Corron ducked and brought his cranium up right into Rozz's chin, throwing him up into the air and landing with a thud. By now, Grunt had gotten up and grabbed Corron's horn and threw him to the ground. "Heh Heh! What's the matter, birdy?" Grunt taunted. "Can't handle a bird with real muscles?" Corron snorted and charged. Grunt, expecting the Ramu to try and ram him, readied his fists to knock him in the beak. However, Corron leaped into the air and landed right on Grunt's back, the sudden weight forcing him down.

This whole time, Larah was sitting on a rock rooting for Corron, while also snacking on a lizard.

Darg roared and charged Corron, but was met with an interesting strategy; once Darg was near enough, Corron jumped up and grasped Darg's shoulders with his talons, and flipped over in midair, pulling Darg with him and bringing him crashing to the ground. Corron then went after Rozz, leaping into the air and smashing his foot right into the Vulture Gorilla's face. Grunt soon got up and shook off the pain, only for Corron to slam into him and throw him a number of feet to the side. Corron then screeched loudly at the trio as they started running away, squawking like chicks.

"Yeah! You'd better run!" Larah yelled at them as they scrambled away like cowards. She laughed as they disappeared from sight, but when she looked up at Corron, her giggling stopped. Corron had a very serious look on his face. "Corron?" She asked with some worry in her voice.

"Larah." He began. "If I hadn't been here, those Vulture Gorillas could have hurt you. Badly. It is clear that you need to learn how to defend yourself."

"I guess you're right." Larah responded.

"Very well." Corron said as he led Larah back into the canyons. "Your training begins tommorow." Larah slept little that night, wondering what kind of training she would endure the next morning.

The next morning, Larah was suddenly awakened by a light, but sharp kick to her side.

"Get up." Corron said sternly. Larah yawned and rubbed her eyes, not happy to have been disturbed so early.

"What was that for?! It's hardly even dawn!" Corron's expression did not change.

"I told you: your training begins today. Now, get up and eat something. We're going to be hard at work today." He said as he walked off.

Later, after Larah had become fully awake and had something to eat for breakfast(a Mosquito), Corron began to instruct her on the art of self-defense.

"Remember: when faced with an enemy, it is best to use not strength, but strategy. It matters not whether your enemy is large or small, strong or swift. What matters is whether you can outsmart them." Larah nodded, taking in Corron's advise. A montage followed of Larah performing a number of difficult tasks with Corron advising her the whole way, including pushing a boulder twice her size with Corron atop it;

**"Though strength is not the most important of your fighting tools, it is an important one nevertheless. You must use your spare time to build on your strength, and feul it in battle with your training."**

Soon, however, Larah collapsed to the ground, panting.

...Hanging from a very skinny vine over a short ravine with Neroc the Bear Owl pacing below;

**"An enemy who watches and waits is the most dangerous kind. To defeat them, you must watch and wait longer."**

After a while, Neroc left, and Larah was still hanging there.

...Running from a pack of Liyotes while holding an egg;

**"Your enemy will stop at nothing to get what he desires, so you must do everything you can to keep it from them."**

A Liyote then grabbed Larah's tail, making her fall, and then made off with the egg. Larah grumbled and blew a lock of hair out of her face while Corron shook his head disapprovingly.

...Standing on one foot atop a tall rock pillar in the middle of a windstorm;

**"The wind is strong. It makes other objects succumb to its power. You must be stronger! Resist the power of your enemy, and you will have an oppertunity to strike!"**

However, a particularly strong gust caused Larah to fall over the edge, but Corron was there to catch her in his beak.

...And standing her ground while Neroc was threatening her.

**"Your enemy will never stop trying to make you show weakness. If you show even the slightest falter in resisting him, your enemy will have already won the battle. You must ****stand your ground at any cost, and not once can you afford to retreat!"**

Neroc roared and charged at the cave-girl. Still, Larah remained where she stood, not daring to run. Sweat began to drip down her skin as Neroc got closer. Suddenly, she could not bear it anymore and broke into a run. Thankfully, Corron rammed Neroc to the ground before he could pounce. The two of them then went back to their canyon home, with Corron showing a look of disapproval.

_**"Uhg!**_ That was exhausting!" Larah groaned as she collapsed onto her nest/bed in exhaustion.

"Indeed it was." Corron stated as he settled into his own nest. "I've never seen someone do so poorly on their first day." Larah angrily humphed and soon fell asleep. Corron watched her, smiling to himself.

"She'll learn eventually. Just like my other student. She'll learn."

Over time, Corron kept training Larah, pushing her to the limit and beyond. And finally, after months and months of tireless work, Larah again tried to stand her ground against Neroc. This time, however, she closed her eyes and did not run. When she heard the Bear Owls footsteps abruptly stop, she opened her eyes and looked up to see Neroc right in front of her, sitting up on his haunches and grinning down at her honorably.

"I admire your courage." He said before running off. Larah smiled triumphantly and looked back at Corron to see him smiling and nodding in approval.

**3 years later...**

A lone Liyote was chasing a young warthog out in the desert, inent on eating it. However, when the Liyote cornered the warthog by several large rocks, the two of them suddenly heard a noise in a nearby tree. The Liyote looked up to see nothing in the tree, but when he turned back to his prey, he was shocked to see that the warthog was gone, with only a cloud of dust remaining! The Liyote was beginning to get scared, when he suddenly heard a twig snap. He swiftly turned in the direction of the sound, but saw nothing. Then, he heard a sudden and abruptly-ended squeal of the warthog, before said creature was dropped in front of him, dead, its neck snapped. Something then skidded across the ground behind the Liyote, and he turned to catch a tiny glimpse of a brown, furry tail with a red tuft on the end before it vanished behind a rock. The Liyote was getting seriously creeped out now. He was about to check out where the tail had gone, when something suddenly landed on the ground right in front of him. The Liyote stared up in fear at a 12-year old girl with black hair with a brown streak in a ponytail, clothed in a spotted, red-orange fur pelt, and with a long, furry tail. The girl also wore reddish-brown bear paws on her feet up to her knees, and wore a belt made of snakeskin that held a knife made from a tiger tooth.

Larah stared down at the terrified Liyote, smiling mischievously.

**"BOO!"** She said suddenly, effectively scaring the living fur off the Liyote before it took off running. Larah laughed to herself as she watched the reptomammal yelp as it scurried back to its pack. Just then, a huge, black and purple 4-horned Ramu came up to her.

"Successful hunt I trust, Larah?" Corron joked. Though Larah was taller now, He was still quite a bit larger than her.

"Funny, Corron. Now c'mon. Let's eat." Larah then cut apart the warthog with her knife, and the pair feasted on the raw meat once it was devided up. Once most of the meat was polished off, Larah was inspecting the warthog's tusks. "Y'know, I could probably make some cool weopons with these." Corron just chuckled.

"That's you, Larah. Always looking to make things into tools. I admire that about you."

"Well, you're the one who taught me to do it." That was indeed true. As well as instinct, Corron possessed some knowledge of human ways, and he had learned much of this by spying on a young human that came around the desert occasionally. Larah also knew how to make fire.

Soon, the sun began to set, but Larah and Corron stayed out while the stars shown overhead. Larah always loved to gaze at the stars, which was why she never slept in a cave or anything else that obscured her view of the night sky. Corron smiled to himself as he watched her shimmy up a tall butte and lay on her back at the top. She was just so full of energy, and Corron just loved that about her. However, he knew that one day she would go off on her own, and Corron was fine with that, as long as it was what Larah wanted. The Ramu eventually settled down in a makeshift nest of dry weeds and fell asleep.

Up atop the rocky butte, Larah took a break from stargazing and looked down at Corron. For the past few years, she had begun to see the giant Ramu as somewhat of a father-figure, and he was much better than any caveman father, so she thought.

Having been raised in the wild, Larah was probably one of the hardiest humans in the world. Countless wild animals roared and howled in the night. _Music to my ears_. She thought before falling asleep.

The next morning, Corron was the first one awake. He stretched and squawked as he stood up, but he suddenly stopped. Corron looked out over the desert, worry on his face. His strong instinct was telling him that something dreadful was about to happen. Larah felt the same as she awoke, too. Since she had been brought up like an animal, she possessed powerful instinct as well, though not as great as Corron's.

Larah jumped down from her high perch and darted down towards Corron.

"Can you feel that?" She said as she came up beside him. Corron hesitated before responding.

"Indeed I do." The both of them felt that they needed to get out of there, and fast. Not a moment later, the earth began to groan before splitting apart! Larah hastily jumped onto Corron's back before he ran as the desert began to crumble around them.

"Corron?! What's happening?!" Larah screamed as Corron ran towards the canyons.

"The desert is going to be destroyed!" The 4-horned Ramu shouted in terror as rocks crashed behind them. "We have to get out of here!" Corron had now made it to the canyons and was nearing the edge of a cliff. He skidded to a stop at the edge and Larah hopped of his back. Suddenly, the cliff broke off from the canyon and fell down into the jungle, taking Corron and Larah with it.

Larah suddenly felt her back hit solid ground, knocking the breath out of her lungs. She groaned as she pushed herself up, and quickly realized that Corron wasn't with her.

"Corron?" She called out.

"Up here!" Corron's voice answered. Larah looked up to see that her friend's horns had gotten caught on a branch, ans she couldn't help but giggle at the sight of him hanging there.

"Real funny, Larah." Corron soon managed to get himself down, and it was only then the two noticed their new surroundings.

"Where are we?" Larah asked in wonder as she stared mouth agape at the twisting branches and vines of the jungle. Corron, despite all his years of travelling and discovery, could only say one thing:

"I don't know..."

* * *

**What will happen next? Find out soon!**

**A/N: Next chapter, we check up on the Hippocheetah family in their exploration of the jungle, and an old "friend" of theirs stops by...**


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